Hayabusa2 left the asteroid Ryugu, about 180 million miles away, a year ago. After the capsule release, it is now moving away from Earth to capture images of the capsule descending to the surface. Hayabusa2’s return with the world’s first asteroid subsurface samples comes weeks after Nasa’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft made a successful touch-and-go grab of surface samples from asteroid Bennu, and China this week announced its lunar lander had collected underground samples and sealed them within the spacecraft for return to Earth, as nations compete in their space missions. Expand Close The asteroid Ryugu (JAXA/AP) AP/PA Images / FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsapp The asteroid Ryugu (JAXA/AP)JAXA hopes to find clues to how the materials are distributed in the solar system and are related to life on Earth. In its first touchdown in February 2019, it collected surface dust samples.

Source: Irish Independent December 05, 2020 07:07 UTC