Experts examine fragments extracted from asteroids

Tal – The fragments of the asteroid to which Japan sent a space probe look like small coal rocks or grains of black sand.

The rocks, just one centimeter (0.4 inches) thick, were brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft on its journey to the asteroid Ryugu, located more than 300 million kilometers (190 million miles) away. of the Earth.

The ship landed on the plains of Australia and the samples were taken to Japan earlier this month.

The sand samples described last week by the Japanese Space Agency come from the spacecraft’s first mission, in April 2019.

The largest fragments come from the compartment assigned for the second mission to Ryugu, said Tomohiro Usui, a space expert scientist.

To get the second set of samples in July last year, Hayabusa2 deeply drilled into the asteroid’s surface and detonated an explosive, rushing to collect the matter before it was contaminated by space radiation.