Coin-sized camera spots distant planets ⚡ экспресс
The navigation camera of Japan's Hayabusa2 probe, with a lens just 15 mm (smaller than many smartphones), has confidently recorded exoplanet transits for the first time. For each event, the mid-transit time was measured with an accuracy of up to 6 minutes, and the planetary parameters matched those from the specialized TESS telescope within 3%. This is a record for the smallest optics working in space, and it shows that even tiny instruments can search for rare long-period planets — much like a miniature sonar spotting a massive whale in the ocean.
The camera lens is no bigger than a quarter. You'd find it in a smartphone, but here it was mounted on the Hayabusa2 probe for asteroid landings. Yet scientists asked it to gaze afar—and the little thing pulled off the transit method (watching a planet cross its star's disk and slightly dim its light) for the first time, spotting exoplanets—worlds around other suns.
The camera caught the shadows of two scorching gas giants. Their passages caused brightness dips of mere fractions of a percent—like a chandelier's glow momentarily flickering as a mosquito flits by. By repeatedly capturing eclipses, astronomers stacked the signals and performed precise photometry (light measurement). One planet's orbital period had to be corrected—the discrepancy with earlier data was too large to ignore.
This success proves you don't need giants to hunt for worlds. Sometimes a baby camera is enough. The real twist? The instrument was built for navigation during landing on asteroid Ryugu, not astronomy. Now miniature tools can blaze a trail to finding long-period planets that big surveys miss.
🎯 The ONC-T camera was originally built for navigation during landing on asteroid Ryugu—now it's snagged an astronomical record.