Japan got more than expected from its asteroid probe – BGR

• Japan revealed more information about what exactly captured its Hayabusa2 asteroid probe during its mission and recently deposited it on Earth.
• The country’s space agency, JAXA, says it has received more material than it hoped for, and offered new images showing more of the asteroid monster collected during the mission.
• The material from the asteroid will now be studied, and there’s no telling what interesting things the researchers will find.

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See all that dark brown, sandy stuff in the picture above? It’s not coffee grounds, believe it or not, but asteroid material that was returned to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid probe. The spacecraft recently dropped off its payload of asteroid material in Australia, which was then shipped to Japan, where eager scientists are waiting to study it.

In a press release a day or two ago, JAXA showed an image of its 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 more asteroid floor than we initially thought, and JAXA says it’s 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 seemed small in images released to the public, but new images show even more material than before. The agency owes this to the fact that the spacecraft performed two sample collection maneuvers, and it appears that the compartment used during the initial landing contains even more material than the scientists thought.

That’s really incredible news for JAXA, but also for the scientific community as a whole, as getting material from an asteroid for study on Earth is not easy. “We have confirmed that a good amount of sand has apparently been collected from the asteroid Ryugu, along with gases,” said JAXA Hayabusa2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda during a taped video message from the space agency. “The monsters from outside our planet, which we have long dreamed of, are now in our hands.”

What’s especially exciting to the scientists at JAXA is that the attempts to collect samples succeeded in retaining not only dusty material, but also larger chunks. These pebbles and small debris can 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 space rock Ryugu, the study period in orbit around the space rock and the return journey took years. Now that the monsters are back on Earth, it will be interesting to see what discoveries can be made. We probably won’t have to wait long for any research using the asteroid monsters to surface.