This weekend, two Asian countries made significant progress in asteroid exploration. Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which completed its initial mission over half a decade ago, flew by a peanut-shaped asteroid called Torifune on Sunday.
The Torifune asteroid's unique shape was revealed during the encounter.
Hours later, China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrived at its target asteroid after a 1 billion km journey. The spacecraft is set to retrieve samples and return them to Earth late next year.
