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The surface dust and pristine material collected from an asteroid by the Japanese Hayabusa-2 space probe far exceeded expectations, leaving scientists “speechless” when they opened the capsule.
The Japanese probe collected samples last year from the asteroid Ryugu, some 300 million kilometers (186 million miles) from Earth, during two daring phases of its six-year mission.
This month he dropped a capsule containing the samples, which created a fireball as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and landed in the Australian desert before being transported to Japan.
Scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) removed the screws from the capsule’s inner container on Tuesday, having already found a small amount of asteroid dust in the outer shell.
“When we actually opened it, I was speechless. It was more than we expected and there was so much that I was really impressed,” said JAXA scientist Hirotaka Sawada, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I think the next thing I probably yelled, I really don’t remember,” he told a news conference. “It was really different than what I expected, there was a good amount.”
“We were targeting 100 milligrams or more, and we definitely succeeded,” he added, noting that the contents contained several samples that were at least a few millimeters wide and what appeared to be organic matter.
Scientists have yet to officially announce whether the material inside is equal to or maybe even more than the 0.1 gram they had said they hoped to discover.
The Hayabusa2, named for the Peregrine Falcon, orbited Ryugu for a few months before landing, then used small explosives to blow up a crater and scooped up the resulting debris. After leaving the capsule, he changed course and returned to space.
Asteroids are believed to have formed at the dawn of the solar system. Scientists hope that the collected material will shed light on the formation of the universe and perhaps offer clues to how life began on Earth.
Half of the Hayabusa-2 samples will be shared between JAXA, the US space agency NASA and other international organizations. The rest will be saved for future study as advances in analytical technology are made.
Work is not done for the probe, which will now begin an extended mission targeting two new asteroids.
