China's Tianwen 2 probe has captured striking pictures of home as it heads out to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples.

The Tianwen-2 probe is being prepped for launch at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The probe will "collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 and ...

China has revealed the first image from its Tianwen 2 asteroid sample return mission, which is now more than 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Earth.

The mission aims to collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 and explore the main-belt comet 311P.

China's Tianwen-2 probe continues on its journey to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) before heading to the main asteroid belt. The second in China's interplanetary exploration program ...

From Tianwen-2's beginnings at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2018 to its successful launch last month, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) kept the spacecraft's appearance tightly ...

The study highlights the profound significance of the Tianwen-2 mission's radar in probing the internal structures of the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO₃ (Kamo'oalewa) and the active asteroid 311P ...

More information: Zengqian Hou et al, In search of signs of life on Mars with China's sample return mission Tianwen-3, Nature Astronomy (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02572-0 ...

The Tianwen-2 probe is being prepped for launch at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The probe will "collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 ...