The asteroid probe Hayabusa2 launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has recently returned to Earth, and JAXA was the first to open the probe’s collection chamber to view the samples.
JAXA tweeted a photo of the sample capsules A and C after they were opened. The samples contained in Chamber A are samples collected by the probe during its first landing on the asteroid Ryugu in February 2019. Sealed compartment C contains samples collected during the second landing in July 2019.
Sealed compartment B was not used to collect samples and is empty inside. jaxa has put photos of sealed compartments A and C side by side for comparison.
On the second landing, the probe fired an explosive that blew a hole in the surface of the asteroid, taking samples of rocks from a somewhat deeper location. Because these rocks from locations below the surface were not exposed to the harsh environment of space, researchers hope they will provide more information about the early history of the solar system’s formative stages.
JAXA said the rocks inside the sealed module C, the largest in diameter at about 1 cm.
Most interesting are the “artificial objects” annotations JAXA made next to the photos of the sealed chamber C. JAXA circled some of the rocks on the photos and believes they are likely to be artificial objects.
JAXA believes that they are some aluminum products that fell off the sampler when the probe blew a hole in the surface of Ryugu, but it is not completely sure yet.
Hayabusa 2 departed from Earth in 2014 and took several years to reach Ryugu, sending back a wealth of data and successfully landing to collect samples from above to send back to Earth.
Recent Comments