The University of Tokyo Organization for Planetary and Space Science (UTOPS) contributed to the special exhibition “Asteroid Sample Return Missions: From ‘Hayabusa’ and ‘Hayabusa2’, and onto ‘MMX’,” held from December 17, 2024 to January 13, 2025 in the permanent exhibition hall on the 2nd floor of the Global Gallery at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

The exhibition featured samples from asteroid Itokawa and asteroid Ryugu, returned to Earth by JAXA’s Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions, together with samples from asteroid Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. This marked the first time that samples from three asteroids were simultaneously displayed to the public.

For more details, please see here.