Trending Now - Study Suggests Japan's Probe May Be Heading for a Lost Spacecraft

WHO:

Futurism - Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb and his colleagues are involved in the study regarding 1998 KY26.

WHAT:

Futurism - Avi Loeb and his colleagues suggest that 1998 KY26 could be a long-lost relic of a historical Russian mission to Mars, specifically the Phobos 1 probe, which suffered a failure two months after its launch in July 1988 due to a faulty command.

Futurism - Loeb stated, “In particular, we identify it as potentially a relic of a historical Russian mission to Mars, the Phobos 1 probe, which suffered a failure 2 months after the launch in July 1988, due to upload of a faulty command.”

Futurism - The researchers argue that the defunct spacecraft and dark comet share roughly the same size and a “quite elongated” shape.

Futurism - Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully rendezvoused with near-Earth asteroid Ryugu in June 2018 and sent a sampled cache of rocks back to Earth.

Yahoo News New Zealand - The Hayabusa2 spacecraft is expected to reach asteroid 1998 KY26 by July 2031.

Futurism - Loeb and his colleagues suggest that 1998 KY26 could be a long-lost relic of the Soviet space program, specifically the Phobos 1 probe.

Yahoo News New Zealand - Phobos 1 failed to send back a signal in August 1988 due to a typo in a command that shut down crucial systems.

Futurism - The researchers argue that the defunct spacecraft and dark comet share roughly the same size and a “quite elongated” shape.

WHERE:

Futurism - The Hayabusa2 spacecraft is traveling to asteroid 1998 KY26, which is located in space.

WHEN:

Futurism - The Hayabusa2 observations in 2031 are anticipated to be decisive in resolving the origin of 1998 KY26.

Yahoo News New Zealand - The Hayabusa2 spacecraft is expected to reach 1998 KY26 by July 2031.

Futurism - The Phobos 1 probe was launched in July 1988 and failed two months later.

WHY:

Futurism - Loeb argues that scientists should include human-launched space objects in their training data set to better understand the nature of objects like 1998 KY26.

HOW:

Futurism - Loeb and his colleagues suggest that the probe’s thruster firings may have put it in a similar orbit to 1998 KY26’s, and that the two orbits converge and are statistically compatible.

(UPDATED June 3, 2026 06:36 UTC)

Avi Loeb and his colleagues propose that the asteroid 1998 KY26 might actually be a long-lost relic from a historical Russian mission to Mars, specifically the Phobos 1 probe, which failed shortly after its launch in July 1988 due to a faulty command. They note that both the defunct spacecraft and the dark comet are similar in size and have a distinctly elongated shape. The researchers believe that observations from the Hayabusa2 mission, set for 2031, will be crucial in determining the true origin of 1998 KY26.

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(UPDATED June 3, 2026 04:25 UTC)

Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb and his team are studying asteroid 1998 KY26, which Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is expected to reach by July 2031 after successfully returning samples from asteroid Ryugu in June 2018. Loeb suggests that 1998 KY26 could be a remnant of the Soviet Phobos 1 probe, which failed to communicate back to Earth in August 1988 due to a command error. The researchers believe that the orbits of the defunct spacecraft and the dark comet are statistically compatible, indicating a potential connection between the two.