Hayabusa2 Asteroid Sample Brings Ryugu Home - The Cosmic Companion Dec. 10, 2020
A sample of the asteroid Ryugu recently landed on Earth, delivered by the Haybusa2 mission. This is the tale of its journey.
The Hayabusa2 asteroid sample provides researchers at the Japanese space agency JAXA the first large samples ever from an asteroid. Here’s the tale of the historic mission.
By James Maynard
On December 6 (JST), a canister from the Japanese robotic explorer, Hayabusa2, carrying precious material from the asteroid Ryugu, raced through our atmosphere, lighting up like a fireball, before landing safely in Australia.
A team of specialists came in, picking up the sample canister, carefully delivering it to a facility for analysis. The Hayabusa2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu successfully brought the first large samples of an asteroid to Earth.
Join us on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion on December 15, when we will talk with Professor Seiji Sugita from the University of Tokyo, researcher on the Hayabusa2 mission!
“On December 6, 2020, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has recovered the body of the capsule, the heat shields, and the parachute of the Hayabusa2 re-entry capsule in the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA). Tomorrow [Dec. 7], the capsule recovery team will extract gas out of the capsule at the operation headquarters in Australia,” JAXA reports.
By the morning of December 8, the Hayabusa2 asteroid sample arrived at the Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center established on the JAXA Sagamihara Campus near the Tanzawa mountains of Japan.
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- James