Far from Earth, a tiny spacecraft is going to punch an asteroid tonight.

Hayabusa2 is swooping close to Ryugu today to collect asteroid dust. The JAXA spacecraft has spent the last day leaving its usual orbit around the asteroid to zoom in close. In just few hours, it will be close enough to touch Ryugu.

But it won’t stay long. The touchdown is more of a quick tag, and Hayabusa2 will stay just long enough to fire a tiny bullet into the asteroid’s surface, in order to stir up material