This photo provided Thursday, December 24, 2020, by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), shows soil samples, seen inside compartment A of the capsule brought by Hayabusa2, in Sagamihara, near Tokyo. Japanese space officials said on Thursday they found more soil samples from asteroids collected and brought from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, as well as black sand granules they found last week, raising their hopes of finding clues to the origins of the solar system. (JAXA via AP)
They look like small pieces of coal, but soil samples collected from an asteroid and returned to Earth by a Japanese spacecraft were not disappointing.
The samples that Japanese space authorities described on Thursday are as big as 1 cm (0.4 inches) and hard as a rock, not breaking when collected or placed in another container. Smaller granules of black sand that the spacecraft collected and returned separately were described last week.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft took the two sets of samples last year from two locations on the asteroid Ryugu, more than 300 million kilometers (190 million miles) from Earth. He threw them from space on a target in the Australian Outback, and the samples were brought to Japan in early December.
The sand granules that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency described last week were the spacecraft’s first touch in April 2019.
The largest fragments were from the compartment allocated for the second landing on Ryugu, said Tomohiro Usui, a space materials scientist.
To obtain the second set of samples in July last year, Hayabusa2 launched an impactor to explode below the surface of the asteroid, collecting material from the artisan so that it would not be affected by space radiation and other environmental factors.
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This optical microscope photo provided Thursday, December 24, 2020, by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), shows soil samples seen inside compartment C of the capsule brought by Hayabusa2, in Sagamihara, near Tokyo. Japanese space officials said on Thursday they found more soil samples from asteroids collected and brought from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, as well as black sand granules they found last week, raising their hopes of finding clues to the origins of the solar system. (JAXA via AP)
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In this archive photo from December 8, 2020, Yuichi Tsuda, project manager Hayabusa2 at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), speaks during a press conference after a capsule containing samples of asteroid soil returned to Japan in Sagamihara, near Tokyo. Japan space agency officials said on Tuesday, December 15, that they found more than the expected amount of soil and gases in a small capsule that the country’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft brought from a distant asteroid this month, a mission that they praised it as a milestone for the research planet. (Yu Nakajima / Kyodo News via AP, Archive)
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This photo provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows soil samples, seen inside a container of the reentry capsule brought by Hayabusa2, in Sagamihara, near Tokyo, Tuesday, December 15, 2020. Japanese space The agency said on Tuesday that they found more than the expected amount of soil and gases in a small capsule that the country’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft brought in from a distant asteroid this month, a sample return mission that they praised as a landmark for planetary research. (JAXA via AP)
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This photo provided by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows soil samples, seen inside a reentry capsule container brought by Hayabusa2, in Sagamihara, near Tokyo, Tuesday, December 15, 2020. Space agency employees Japan said on Tuesday that they found more than the expected amount of soil and gases in a small capsule that the country’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft brought from a distant asteroid this month, a sample return mission that they praised as a milestone for planetary research. (JAXA via AP)
Usui said the size differences suggest a different hardness than the asteroid rock. “One possibility is that the location of the second touch was a solid rock and larger particles broke and entered the compartment.”
JAXA is continuing the initial examination of asteroid samples before further studies next year. Scientists hope the samples will provide information about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. After studies in Japan, some of the samples will be shared with NASA and other international space agencies for further research.
Hayabusa2, however, is on an 11-year expedition to another small, distant asteroid, 1998KY26, to try to study possible defenses against meteorites that could fly towards Earth.
Japan space agency finds broad soil, asteroid gas
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