- Japan revealed more information about what exactly captured its asteroid probe Hayabusa2 during its mission and that it recently fell to Earth.
- The country’s space agency, JAXA, says it obtained more material than expected and offered new images showing more of the asteroid sample that was collected during the mission.
- The asteroid material will now be studied and it is not known what interesting things researchers may find.
Do you see all these sandy, dark brown things in the picture above? Believe it or not, it is not a coffee, but an asteroid material that was returned to Earth by the Japanese asteroid spacecraft Hayabusa2. The spacecraft has recently left its payload of asteroid material in Australia, which was then sent to Japan, where eager scientists are waiting to study it.
In a press release a day or two ago, JAXA showed a picture of the sample collection container showing what appeared to be a very small amount of material. Now, in an updated statement and a new image, we can see that there was actually quite a bit of asteroid ground than we initially thought, and JAXA says he is overwhelmed by the success of the mission.
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It has now been reported that the Japanese space agency received even more asteroid material than expected. The sample initially looked small in images posted to the public, but the new images show even more material than before. The agency is due to the fact that the spacecraft performed two sampling maneuvers and it appears that the compartment used during the first touchdown had even more material than the scientists thought.
This is really amazing news for JAXA as well as for the scientific community at large, as it is not easy to get material from an asteroid to study on Earth. “We have confirmed a good amount of sand apparently collected from the asteroid Ryugu, along with gases,” Yuichi Tsuda, project director of JAXA Hayabusa2, said during a recorded video message posted by the space agency. “Samples from outside our planet, which we have been dreaming of for a long time, are now in our hands.”
What is particularly exciting for JAXA scientists is that attempts to collect samples managed to trap not only dusty material but also larger pieces. These pebbles and small remnants of rock could provide even more information about the formation and life of the asteroid, as well as other rocky bodies in our solar system.
Hayabusa2’s long journey to the Ryugu space rock, the period of study in orbit around the space rock, and the return journey, have taken years to complete. Now that the samples are back on Earth, it will be interesting to see what kind of discoveries can be made. We probably won’t have to wait long before some research on asteroid samples begins to surface.
Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games over the past decade, covering breaking news and trends in VR, portable devices, smartphones and future technology. Most recently, Mike worked as a technical editor at The Daily Dot and has appeared on USA Today, Time.com and countless other web and print outlets. His love of reporting is only second to his addiction to games.