New Images Reveal That This Asteroid Is Actually Two Conjoined Space Rocks That Form a Peanut-Shaped Object Called a ‘Contact Binary’

A flyby conducted by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 uncovered the asteroid’s strange shape. Data gathered by the probe will also help defend the planet against potentially threatening space rocks

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

July 8, 2026 5:21 p.m.

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On July 5, a Japanese spacecraft flew past an odd-looking asteroid named Torifune. The probe snapped photos, which it beamed to Earth, revealing that the object is actually made of two space rocks that are stuck together—something called a “contact binary.”

“Yeah, that’s weird,” says Andy Rivkin, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University, to Robin George Andrews at the New York Times. The data collected about the asteroid might do more than uncover its funky shape. It could one day help experts defend the planet against incoming space rocks that pose a danger to us.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft that captured the data, Hayabusa2, snapped a particularly show-stopping close-up from just over half a mile from Torifune’s surface, according to a statement. The black-and-white photo was captured using the probe’s optical camera as the craft hurtled by at a speed of about 11,000 miles per hour. It shows that the roughly 1,475-foot-long asteroid resembles a peanut.

“This is such an amazing and complex image,” says Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum in London, to David Dickinson at Sky & Telescope. The new glimpse of Torifune is “perhaps the best example [of a contact binary] that I have ever seen.”

These types of objects, she adds, “are formed when two objects collide and stick together, giving insights into how small bodies in the solar system and other stellar systems grow into progressively larger objects and eventually into planets.”

Researchers once thought that these twofer objects were rare, but recent estimates have found that they could make up to 30 percent of all small bodies in the solar system. Other examples of contact binaries include asteroids Arrokoth, Donaldjohanson and Dinkinesh. However, researchers have never seen them form, so there are a few different ideas about how, exactly, the space rocks merge.

When Torifune was about six miles from Hayabusa2, the probe took a snapshot of the asteroid with its infrared camera, which can measure the space rock’s surface temperature, resistance to temperature change and surface roughness, according to the statement. The probe gathered additional data using other scientific instruments when it was within roughly one hour of its closest approach to the asteroid, which will be analyzed later.

Hayabusa2 launched in 2014 with a mission to reach the asteroid Ryugu. In 2020, it successfully delivered about one gram’s worth of samples from the space rock to Earth, marking the first time subsurface materials were collected directly from an asteroid. Since then, the probe has been on an extended mission to help researchers understand how the Earth could be protected from a killer asteroid.

“The successful flyby of Torifune is an excellent example of a rapid reconnaissance mission,” says Cristina Thomas, a planetary astronomer and planetary defense researcher at Northern Arizona University, to the Times. In a rapid reconnaissance mission, a probe quickly flies by a threatening space rock to assess characteristics like size, shape, structure, trajectory and composition that would help experts move or destroy it.

While Torifune poses no harm to Earth, the mission will help scientists prepare for potentially dangerous asteroids. Planetary defense experts have conducted other preparation missions, such as NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), during which a spacecraft intentionally crashed into the small asteroid Dimorphos to alter its orbital path. Dimorphos also wasn’t dangerous to Earthlings, but the agency wanted to test whether it could deflect a possible threat.

“The technical, engineering, navigation and scientific expertise required to get up close and personal with space rocks is growing,” Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, tells the Times.

Next up, Hayabusa2 will conduct Earth flybys in December 2027 and June 2028, per Sky & Telescope. Its ultimate goal, however, is to reach the rapidly spinning asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. If the mission is successful, the roughly 100-foot-wide space rock could be the smallest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft.

Sara Hashemi | Read More

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.