In the world of wagashi, or traditional Japanese sweets, looks can be just as important as taste. In recent years, the aesthetic appeal of some of these sweets has evolved to even reveal a different beautiful scene with each serving you take, but transparent sweets remain one of the most popular varieties. Whether it be celebrated confectionery Eitaro's cherry blossom filled sakura jellies or the water-based Mizu Shingen Mochi that became a hit around the world as rain drop cake, clear Japanese sweets have proven to be an eye-catcher.

Japanese convenience store Lawson has decided to inject a little otherworldly beauty into the transparent sweets boom, however, by holding a contest to design a limited edition dessert to help support the mission of the Japanese space probe Hayabusa2. Hayabusa2 is the scheduled to conduct a sample return mission of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu, named after the undersea Dragon Palace in Japanese folklore. Legend says that fisherman Urashima Tarō traveled to the magical kingdom on the back of a turtle, and returned to land with a mysterious box--just as the Hayabusa2 is intended to. While we can't say for sure what the space probe's findings will look like, Lawson is helping us imagine with a stunningly beautiful dessert.

Spacedust jelly!

Contestants submitted their own designs for a "Ryugu Sweets" product, and the winning selection took inspiration from the traditional Japanese sweet, mizu manju, and injected it with starry space scenery.

The treat, officially titled the Butterfly Pea Tea Jiggly Jelly (Lemon), achieves the out of this world aesthetic by using butterfly pea flower tea and adding lemon and gold flakes to the jelly to produce a change in color. Placed on a black plate or try, the fruity jelly is like a sweet look into the depths of space itself. Here's a look at how colorful butterfly pea flower tea can get.

The space-themed jelly will go on sale for 180 yen starting July 10th at all Lawson convenience stores in Japan, outside of Okinawa.