Japanese Spacecraft Hayabusa2 Lands On Asteroid Ryugu, Collects Samples To Study Origin Of Life

It truly is a great time to be a space nerd. Every day, scientists are pushing boundaries and discovering things hitherto unknown to us. Last year, we got to hear martian winds courtesy NASA’s InSight. The spacecraft also won hearts by sharing its first ever selfie on Mars.

And now, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has confirmed that its space probe, Hayabusa2, has successfully touched down on asteroid ‘Ryugu’.

A newbie’s guide to Hayabusa2 – What is it and what does it do?

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1098607549480402945

It is a Japanese asteroid explorer built to study Ryugu, located 300 million kilometres from Earth. Its mission is to collect samples from the asteroid and bring them back to us. According to a TIME report, it uses a device named sampler horn “to extend a pipe and shoot a pinball-like object into the asteroid to blow up material from beneath the surface.” This material is the sample to be examined back home.

This is an image of the asteroid being studied. Fun fact: Ryugu comes from Japanese folklore and translates to ‘dragon’s palace’.

But why do we need to study this asteroid?

The New York Times explains that asteroids “contain some almost pristine compounds that help tell what the early solar system was like 4.5 billion years ago.” Essentially, what this means is that the organic matter and water on the asteroid will be very useful to scientists in studying the origin & evolution of the solar system. It may also provide clues as to how life on Earth came about.

That’s pretty cool stuff right there, even if you’re not a space nerd.

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