25143 Itokawa

Asteroid 25143 Itokawa is a small near-Earth asteroid and the target of Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft missions. Discovered on September 26, 1998, by the LINEAR project, Itokawa is a relatively small asteroid, measuring approximately 535 meters (1,755 feet) in its longest dimension. In 2005, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Hayabusa spacecraft on a mission to rendezvous with Itokawa. Hayabusa arrived at the asteroid in September 2005, conducting detailed observations and attempting to collect samples from its surface. Despite numerous technical challenges and issues encountered during the mission, Hayabusa successfully retrieved a small amount of asteroidal material using a sample collection device named the "sampling horn". The samples returned to Earth by Hayabusa in 2010 provided valuable insights into Itokawa's composition, revealing that the asteroid consists of a mixture of rocky materials, including dust, pebbles, and small boulders.