December 6, a fragment of a planet was found in the middle of the Australian desert.
But this was not a work of nature. It was a well-choreographed, gooey affair that took years of planning and execution.
Japan’s Haibusa 2 spacecraft, which traveled in space for about six years to tag and collect a sample of the planet Rayugu, landed a small capsule with a piece of space stone for analysis on Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JXA) opened the capsule last week, unveiling the world’s first valuable space cargo. And there was a surprise in the store.
JAXA published the images on its website and on Twitter.
As incredible as this moment is for science, the curious eyes between you will find something strange in the image above. You didn’t make a mistake.
There is definitely something ‘closed’ about the rocks enclosing the chamber C of the sample storage capsule.
It looks like a sack that encloses with a drawstring.
Here is the background – The images are the culmination of the Haibusa 2 mission, which ended a five-year journey by landing on the planet Rayugu on February 21, 2019. The spacecraft arrived in the Raigun series in June, 2018 and spent more than a year around its rocky ally. , Collect observations and images before the final touchdown of Ryuguna.
The spacecraft collected a small sample of the planet and dropped it in the Woomera Prohibited region of South Australia. The 40-centimeter capsule landed on Earth on December 4, and the team behind the mission received it two days later.
After heading to a laboratory in Japan, scientists finally opened the precious cargo on December 14, looking at a rare specimen from the universe.
Why its news – Inside the capsule was just another asteroid specimen that humans have helped carry in their hands throughout history. By studying the sample, scientists are hoping it will help better understand the origins of the solar system.
Asteroids are composed of very similar materials that formed the solar system, and may contain clues as to how water and other biological matter reached Earth, and as we know it, revived life.
Most of what we know about asteroids comes from meteors, which rain down on Earth as their parent comets and asteroids pass through our planet. But this material can vary depending on the Earth’s atmosphere, water or weather.
Pulling out a piece of an asteroid as it flies through space, scientists have been providing scientists with billions of years of ancient material when the solar system was in its infancy.
What is new – As seen in the images, the capsule contains small, severely fragments of asteroids collected by the Hybusa 2 spacecraft.
There were a total of three capsule chambers with asteroid samples inside. The samples in Chamber C were larger than the one found in Chamber A, and the scientists behind the mission believe that the samples in Chamber C were collected during the second touchdown of the spacecraft on the planet.
Another strange discovery in Chamber C is the synthetic object object, which looks like some kind of tin foil.
Small scraps can be aluminum that scratches the spacecraft during landing, according to JXA. But the jury is still out about, exactly, where this piece of stuff is and where it came from. It does, however, look artificial and therefore, potentially a waste of space.
What’s next – Now that the capsule has been opened, scientists will spend years exploring the origins of the planet Rayugu as well as the origins of our own world and finding specimens.
Jaksha says the spacecraft is more than enough dirt for preliminary analysis, suggesting there may be a wealth of new information about the asteroids.
