The president of the Japanese space agency Hiroshi Yamakawa said at a press conference that the probe landed twice on the asteroid, the second time creating an artificial crater and collecting some debris.
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The moment of the collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope. Drone recording
In his opinion, further study of the samples may shed new light on how the solar system was formed and how water was brought to Earth.
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The probe, launched in 2014 from the Japanese space center Tanegashima, traveled for four years to the Ryugu asteroid, where it returned to Earth after sampling, where it landed in November 2019.
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The mission of the Hayabusa2 probe is another step on Japan’s path in space exploration.
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It is believed that asteroids formed at the dawn of the solar system, and the sample itself may contain organic matter that may have contributed to life on Earth.
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“The samples can tell us even more about the evolution of our species, but also about how the water ended up on the earth. It’s fascinating,” Japanese researchers point out.
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