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The Japanese space probe Hayabusa 2 sent a capsule to Earth this Saturday with samples of the asteroid Ryugu, which will land this Sunday in a South Australian desert. reported the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Weighing about one gram, they are the first samples taken from the underground material of an asteroid. Scientists hope this material could contribute to research into the origin of life on Earth, as the Ryugu, which is roughly 4.6 billion years old, would have undergone minimal changes since the formation of the solar system.
Hayabusa 2 was launched towards the asteroid in December 2014 from the Japanese island of Tanegashima. During his mission, he made two successful landings on Ryugu’s surface in order to obtain samples from deeper layers of the cosmic body. The probe will continue in open space and begin the exploration of another asteroid, named “1998 KY26”.
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