Scientists get first look at asteroid monster from space

Japanese scientists got their first look at the Hayabusa2 spacecraft’s monster capsule that contained asteroid dust from a near-terrestrial asteroid called Ryugu. As reported by Space.com, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft launched in 2014 and arrived in Ryugu in 2018.Observing and sampling the asteroid for about a year and a half before taking off to deposit the sample capsule back into Earth’s atmosphere.

A large number of particles have been confirmed to be in “sample chamber A” in the collected capsule (~ 11:10 JST on 12/15). This is believed to be the example of the first touchdown on Ryugu. The picture looks brown, but our team says “black”! The sample return is a great success! pic.twitter.com/34vIx17zOX

– HAYABUSA2 @ JAXA (@ haya2e_jaxa) December 15, 2020

On December 5, the capsule landed in Australia’s Woomera Prohibited Area, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returned the capsule to Japan.

“We have confirmed that there were black grains from Ryugu,” said representatives of the mission wrote on Twitter. “This is located outside the main chambers and there are probably particles attached to the entrance of the sample catcher.”

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft was able to take these samples by grabbing rocks from the surface of the asteroids and firing a copper bullet into the asteroid to expose underground material. These two kinds of monsters “should enable scientists to understand how the harsh environment of space has affected the surface of Ryugu.”

JAXA has yet to announce when scientists will start analyzing this asteroid dust, but given that “asteroids are primal debris left over from the formation of the solar system, scientists hope that studying these samples from Ryugu will help them understand the early days of the solar system. . “

Do you have a tip for us? Discuss a possible story? Send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.