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Samples collected from a distant asteroid reached Earth on Sunday.
Tokyo Japan:
In a beam of light across the night sky, samples collected from a distant asteroid reached Earth on Sunday after being dropped off by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa-2.
Scientists hope that the precious samples, which are expected to amount to no more than 0.1 grams of material, could help shed light on the origin of life and the formation of the universe.
The sample-carrying capsule entered the atmosphere just before 2:30 a.m. Japan time (1730 GMT Saturday), creating a shooting star-like fireball as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
“Six years and he’s finally returned to Earth,” said an official narrating a live broadcast of the arrival, as footage showed officials from Japan’s JAXA space agency cheering and shaking their fists with enthusiasm.
A few hours later, JAXA confirmed that the samples had been recovered, with the help of beacons emitted by the capsule when it plunged to Earth after separating from Hayabusa-2 on Saturday, while the refrigerator-sized probe was about 220,000 kilometers (137,000 miles) away. .
“We found the capsule! Along with the parachute! Wow!” He tweeted the mission’s Twitter account.
The capsule was recovered in the desert of South Australia and will now be processed before being shipped to Japan.
The samples were collected by Hayabusa-2, which was launched in 2014, from the asteroid Ryugu, some 300 million kilometers from Earth.
The probe collected both surface dust and pristine material from below the surface that was stirred up when an “impactor” was fired at the asteroid.
The material collected from the asteroid is believed to have not changed since the time the universe formed.
Larger celestial bodies like Earth underwent radical changes that included heating and solidification, changing the composition of the materials on their surface and below.
But “when it comes to smaller planets or asteroids, these substances did not melt, and therefore substances from 4.6 billion years ago are believed to still be there,” mission director Hayabusa told reporters. 2, Makoto Yoshikawa, before the capsule arrived.
Samples with organic material?
Scientists are especially interested in finding out whether the samples contain organic matter, which could have helped seed life on Earth.
“We do not yet know the origin of life on Earth and through this Hayabusa-2 mission, if we are able to study and understand these organic materials from Ryugu, it could be that these organic materials were the source of life on Earth,” Yoshikawa said.
Half of the Hayabusa-2 samples will be shared between JAXA, the US space agency NASA, and other international organizations, and the rest will be kept for future study as advances in analytical technology are made.
More tasks for Hayabusa-2
Work is not done for Hayabusa-2, which will now begin an extended mission targeting two new asteroids.
It will complete a series of orbits around the sun for about six years before approaching the first of its target asteroids, named 2001 CC21, in July 2026.
The probe won’t get that close, but scientists hope it will be able to photograph it and that the flyby will help develop knowledge about how to protect Earth from an asteroid impact.
Hayabusa-2 will then head towards its main target, 1998 KY26, a ball-shaped asteroid with a diameter of just 30 meters. When the probe reaches the asteroid in July 2031, it will be approximately 300 million kilometers from Earth.
It will observe and photograph the asteroid, not an easy task since it spins rapidly, rotating on its axis approximately every 10 minutes.
But Hayabusa-2 is unlikely to land and collect samples, as it probably won’t have enough fuel to return them to Earth.
