Japan retrieves asteroid samples in hunt for origins of planets | Flash News
Japan retrieves asteroid samples in hunt for origins of planets
Japan has recovered an asteroid dust capsule in Australia's remote hinterland after a six-year mission that could help learn more about the origins of planets and water, announced Sunday the Asian space agency.
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 mission sheds light on Asia's growing role in space exploration, with a Chinese robotic vehicle collecting lunar samples last week for the first time since the 1970s.
A helicopter flew the UAV capsule, containing the first significant samples of asteroid dust, from the landing site in the Australian desert to a national research center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
"The probe landed twice on the asteroid and the second time it created an artificial crater and collected debris," agency president Hiroshi Yamakawa said at a press conference.
"Hopefully this will shed light on how the solar system was formed and how water was brought to Earth."
The capsule may also contain gas, which will be mined in Australia, Yamakawa added.
The spacecraft, launched in 2014 from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center, traveled for four years to asteroid Ryugu, where it collected a sample and returned home in November 2019.
Spectators gathered at a theater near the Japanese capital of Tokyo to see the cheering and banner-waving comeback in NHK footage, with a woman in tears. They wore masks and kept a distance from each other as a precaution against the coronavirus.
The asteroids are believed to have formed at the dawn of the solar system, and scientists say the sample may contain organic matter that could have contributed to life on Earth.
“What we're really doing here is trying to sample this pristine rock that hasn't been irradiated by the sun,” astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The gases trapped in the rock samples could reveal more about the conditions prevailing around 4.6 billion years ago, she added.
The recovery of the capsule also demonstrates close technical cooperation between Japan and Australia.
"Our work in supporting JAXA will not be over until we see the sample ... leave Australia safely and return to Japan," said Megan Clark, head of the Australian Space Agency. , during the press conference.
"And then the sample will start telling their stories and revealing wonderful signs to us about how water got to our Earth and how we may have even been formed, like our organics, our animals based of carbon, our humans and our plants. ”
The Japanese craft, named after the peregrine falcon, a bird of prey, orbiting the asteroid for a few months to map its surface before landing. He used small explosives to detonate a crater and collected the resulting debris.
After Hayabusa2 dropped the capsule, he changed course and returned to space.
The capsule ignited on re-entering the atmosphere early Sunday and landed in the Woomera Restricted Area, about 460 km north of Adelaide, the space agency said.
Source:- Flash News and News Agencies