OREANDA-NEWS  Specialists from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plan to work out the technology to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts using the Hayabusa-2 probe. This was reported by the Yomiuri newspaper.

It is noted that in July 2026, the probe may fly past the asteroid 2001CC21 with a diameter of about 700 meters at a speed of 5 kilometers per second. The spacecraft will not collide with an asteroid, but JAXA employees will adjust the flight path of the Hayabusa-2 so that it approaches the space object at a distance of up to 10 kilometers at the time of passage.

Thus, scientists plan to practice piloting skills near the asteroid. In the future, this knowledge will be able to be applied in a situation where probes will be directed at space objects to prevent them from falling to Earth.

In October, the state corporation Roscosmos reported that work on the creation of an automated warning system for dangerous situations in near-Earth space, known as the Milky Way, will be launched in 2026.

In April, scientists from the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences revealed the maximum approach of an asteroid to Earth in the XXI century. The 2006 HV5 object was recorded at a distance of 2.4 million kilometers from Earth.