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JAPAN-AUSTRALIA-SPACE-SCIENCE-ASTEROID
Japan space agency hails return of asteroid dust on Earth
TOKYO, Dec 6, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Japan space agency officials on Sunday
hailed the arrival of rare asteroid samples on Earth after they were
collected by space probe Hayabusa-2 during an unprecedented mission.
In a streak of light across the night sky, a capsule containing the
precious specimens taken from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth after being
dropped off by the probe.
Scientists hope the samples, which are expected to amount to no more than
0.1 grams of material, could help shed light on the origin of life and the
formation of the universe.
“After six years of space travel, the box of treasures was able to land in
Australia’s Woomera this morning,” Databus-2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda
told a press conference.
The capsule carrying samples entered the atmosphere just before 2:30 am
Japan time (1730 GMT Saturday), creating a shooting-star-like fireball as it
entered Earth’s atmosphere en route to the landing site Down Under.
A few hours later, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed
the samples had been recovered, with help from beacons emitted by the capsule
as it plummeted to Earth after separating from Hayabusa-2 on Saturday, while
the fridge-sized probe was about 220,000 kilometres (137,000 miles) away.
“The capsule landed in perfect form, and the probe is moving on to another
mission,” Tsuda said.
The capsule, recovered in the southern Australian desert, will now be in
the hands of scientists performing initial analysis including checking for
any gas emissions.
It will then be sent to Japan.
Megan Clark, chief of the Australian Space Agency, congratulated the
“wonderful achievement”.
“2020 has been a difficult year all around the world” but the Hayabusa-2
helped “renew our faith in the world, and our trust (in) and appreciation” of
the science of the outer universe, she said.
– Samples with organic material? –
The samples were collected by Hayabusa-2, which launched in 2014, from the
asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million kilometres from Earth.
The probe collected both surface dust and pristine material from below the
surface that was stirred up by firing an “impactor” into the asteroid.
The material is believed to be unchanged since the time the universe was
formed.
Larger celestial bodies like Earth went through radical changes including
heating and solidifying, changing the composition of the materials on their
surface and below.
But “when it comes to smaller planets or smaller asteroids, these
substances were not melted, and therefore it is believed that substances from
4.6 billion years ago are still there,” Hayabusa-2 mission manager Makoto
Yoshikawa told reporters before the capsule arrived.
Scientists are especially keen to discover whether the samples contain
organic matter, which could have helped seed life on Earth.
“We still don’t know the origin of life on Earth and through this Hayabusa-
2 mission, if we are able to study and understand these organic materials
from Ryugu, it could be that these organic materials were the source of life
on Earth,” Yoshikawa said.
“We’ve never had materials like this before… water and organic matters
will be subject to research, so this is a very valuable opportunity,” said
Motoo Ito, senior researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and
Technology.
Half of Hayabusa-2’s samples will be shared between JAXA, US space agency
NASA and other international organisations, and the rest kept for future
study as advances are made in analytic technology.
– More tasks for Hayabusa-2 –
The work is not over for Hayabusa-2, which will now begin an extended
mission targeting two new asteroids.
It will complete a series of orbits around the sun for around six years
before approaching the first of the asteroids — named 2001 CC21 — in July
2026.
The probe will not get as close as it did to Ryugu, but scientists hope it
will be able to photograph CC21 and that the fly-by will help develop
knowledge about how to protect Earth against asteroid impact.
Hayabusa-2 will then head towards its main target, 1998 KY26, a ball-shaped
asteroid with a diameter of just 30 metres.
When the probe arrives at the asteroid in July 2031, it will be
approximately 300 million kilometres from Earth.
It will observe and photograph the asteroid, no easy task given that it is
spinning rapidly, rotating on its axis about every 10 minutes.
But Hayabusa-2 is unlikely to land and collect samples, as it probably
would not have enough fuel to return them to Earth.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1750 hrs