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Rubble pile

Hayabusa2 arrives at Ryugu.

The Japanese Aerospace

Exploration Agency’s

Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived

at the near-Earth asteroid

Ryugu on June 27. The craft

set off on its 3.26 billion-

mile (5.24 billion kilome-

ters) round-trip journey in

late 2014. When Hayabusa

arrived, mission scientists used

images like this one, taken

July 20 from a distance of just

under 4 miles (6 km), to scope

out a landing site for the space-

craft’s Mobile Asteroid Surface

Scout (MASCOT).

The probe will use an array

of instruments, including the

MASCOT lander and three

small rovers, to dissect the

diamond-shaped asteroid’s

composition, study its physical

properties, and, most excit-

ingly, shoot a projectile into

the asteroid’s surface to eject

pieces small enough to bring

back to Earth. Since asteroids

have remained more or less

unchanged since their cre-

ation, their compositions allow

astronomers to determine the

time, place and conditions in

which they formed, revealing

the specific molecules that

were present in our infant solar

system. — Amber Jorgensen JAXA, UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO, KOCHI UNIVERSITY, RIKKYO UNIVERSITY, NAGOYA UNIVERSITY, CHIBA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, MEIJI UNIVERS

ITY, UNIVERSITY OF AIZU, AIST; TOP FROM LEFT: IMAGE ADOPTED FROM GUERRERO, FANG, MILLER BERTOLAMI,

ET AL., 2018,

NATURE ASTRONOMY

, TMP, 112; KEVIN

GILL; NASA/EXPEDITION 41

LAST GASP

Astronomers found a

strange double-shelled

planetary nebula they

believe was created by

a shock wave generated

late in the star’s life.

NOGO

A NASA-sponsored study

found that terraforming

Mars to create an Earth-

like environment for

humans is not possible

with current technology.

CREW SELECTION

NASA has introduced the

U.S. astronauts who will

crew the first flights of two

commercial spacecraft,

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner

and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.