Visions of Ryugu: The Funny (and Scary) Asteroid Predictions by Japan's Hayabusa2 Team

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Elizabeth Tasker/JAXA

Elizabeth Tasker, responsible for global outreach on Hayabusa2, had one more amusing view to add: "Sometimes auto-translators give very strange suggestions when converting Japanese into English. One translation said Hayabusa2 would be collecting 'LEGO squirrels' from Ryugu," she said. "However, the correct translation is actually 'regolith'!"

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Sarah Lewin
Sarah Lewin
Associate Editor

Sarah Lewin started writing for Space.com in June of 2015 as a Staff Writer and became Associate Editor in 2019 . Her work has been featured by Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Quanta Magazine, Wired, The Scientist, Science Friday and WGBH's Inside NOVA. Sarah has an MA from NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program and an AB in mathematics from Brown University. When not writing, reading or thinking about space, Sarah enjoys musical theatre and mathematical papercraft. She is currently Assistant News Editor at Scientific American. You can follow her on Twitter @SarahExplains.