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Hayabusa2 mission confirms return of asteroid sample to Earth

2020-12-16T03:58:40.623Z


The Hayabusa2 mission collected the sample from a near-Earth asteroid and brought it back to the planet, according to the JAXA agency.


Samples from the subsurface of asteroid 1:31 reach Earth

(CNN) ––

The Hayabusa2 mission successfully collected a sample from a near-Earth asteroid and brought it to the planet, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

It also obtained the first gas sample from deep space, according to the entity.

The sample was dropped to Earth in a capsule on December 6 over South Australia.

JAXA teams were able to retrieve the capsule at the site where it landed.

Also, they managed to run some preliminary gas tests inside the object before it was shipped to Japan.

The gas was the first step in helping researchers confirm that the spacecraft successfully collected a sample from the asteroid Ryugu in 2019, when the spacecraft visited.

  • LEE: Ryugu, the asteroid that is close to Earth, made an 'orbital excursion' towards the Sun

The researchers confirmed that the gas originated from Ryugu because their analysis shows that the gas is different from the atmospheric composition on Earth.

Two different analyzes helped the teams arrive at the same result.

The first was held in Australia on December 7.

And the next one was held from December 10-11 at the Alien Samples Curing Center on the JAXA Campus in Sagamihara.

The gas is likely coming from material collected from the asteroid's surface, as well as from below the surface.

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Researchers will continue to open the capsule containing the sample to understand more about the gas.

Additionally, the team confirmed that grains of black sand are also inside the sample container.

One more confirmation that there is asteroid material inside the capsule.

Japanese spaceship brings extraterrestrial samples 0:32

By the end of 2021, JAXA will share small samples of Ryugu with six teams of scientists from around the world.

Meanwhile, the Hayabusa2 mission continues on its way after flying across Earth in early December to drop the capsule.

Now, it will visit more asteroids in the future.

Hayabusa2 launched on December 3, 2014 and reached the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu in June 2018. The spacecraft collected a sample of the asteroid's surface on February 22, 2019. It then fired a copper "bullet" at the asteroid to create a 10-meter-wide impact crater.

A sample was taken from this crater on July 11, 2019.

  • LOOK: What scientists learned after firing a small cannonball at a near-Earth asteroid

Hayabusa2 subsequently departed the asteroid in November 2019 and traveled back to Earth.

In total, the mission scientists believe that one gram of material was collected.

But, they can't be sure until they fully open it.

"A gram may seem small, but to us a gram is giant," said Masaki Fujimoto, deputy director general of the department of solar system sciences at JAXA, during an online briefing organized by the Australian Center for Science Media.

"It is enough to address our scientific questions."

The agency's first Hayabusa mission returned samples from the asteroid Itokawa to Earth in June 2010. However, the scientists said that due to the failure of the spacecraft's sampling device, they were only able to recover micrograms of dust from the asteroid.

Hayabusa2 visited the asteroid Ryugu to collect multiple samples.

"Ryugu is linked to the process that made our planet habitable," Fujimoto said.

«The Earth was born dry.

It did not start with water.

We believe that distant bodies like Ryugu reached the inner part of the solar system, hit the Earth, left water and made it habitable.

That is the fundamental question and we need samples to solve it ”, he completed.

Asteroids are like remnants from the formation of our solar system.

Precisely, they preserve information about the origins of the planets, as well as the vital elements that allow life to exist on Earth.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission recently collected a sample from Bennu, another near-Earth asteroid, which is similar in composition to Ryugu.

In fact, based on early data from both missions, scientists working on them believe it is possible that these two asteroids once belonged to the same larger parent body before it was ruptured by an impact.

The Bennu sample will return to Earth in 2023.

Patrick Michel, director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, participates in both missions.

"It's really important to realize that no two asteroids are the same," Michel told CNN in October.

Even if Bennu and Ryugu share some intriguing similarities and belong to the same (primitive) category, they also have some very interesting differences.

And these samples will occupy generations of researchers, as a large number will be kept for future generations who will benefit from the increased technology and precision of the instruments used to analyze them.

AsteroidJapanJAXAMSpace Mission

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-12-16

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