This morning, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JXA, confirmed that its mission to bring back samples of the planet Earth would indeed bring home space rocks. The agency’s engineers found black sand that they believe is from a planet inside the mission’s sample container.
That’s good news for the mission, known as Haibusa 2, which launched into space in 2014. The mission sent a spacecraft to a planet called Raigu to collect rock samples from the surface of the object and then bring them back to our planet for study. Haibusa 2 cut and wounded the material twice from Ryugu before returning to Earth. The vehicle arrived earlier this month by stripping a box full of asteroid specimens, which then reached Australia by parachute on 5 December.
To date, JAXA engineers have not been able to confirm the spacecraft Was Taking any samples. According to the plan, the vehicle maneuvered all its samples on Rayugu, while the mission team had no way of confirming that the vehicle was carrying any planetary object while in space. They had to wait today when they first opened the sample container in a clean room in Japan.
The sample container inside the re-entry capsule was opened on December 14, and we confirmed that the black grains of Raigun were inside. This is outside the main chamber, and the potential particles are attached to the catcher entry of the sample. (English publication available tomorrow) https://t.co/NAw1R1cjvy pic.twitter.com/5BfXxfH29h
– HAYABUSA2 JAXA (@ haya2e_jaxa) December 14, 2020
The sample container inside the re-entry capsule has been opened, JX wrote in a statement. “On March 14, a black sand granular sample believed to be taken from the asteroid Ryugu was confirmed inside a sample container.”
The good news doesn’t stop there, as there may be more eclipse material than engineers have yet to arrive. The black sand sample discovered by JXA was located at the opening of the container. Inside the container is still a main chamber that has not yet opened, which may contain a large portion of the sample. The goal of the mission was to collect about 100 milligrams of material from Rayugu. Engineers will know if they hit their target as they dive into the depths of Hebusa 2 stores.
