Japanese Space Capsule re-enters Earth with asteroid samples

Samples could provide clues to the origin of solar system and life on the Earth

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2, a space exploration spacecraft, released a small capsule which entered the Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday, 5th Dec. The capsule contained about 100 mg of samples from asteroid Ryugu rich in water and carbon containing compounds. Ryugu is a primitive ‘C-type’ asteroid, this means that it retains the interactions of the material in the primordial cloud that gave birth to the entire galaxies. A sample from the asteroid would provide clarity on the origin and evolution on the solar system and the origin of life.

Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014 and rendezvoused with the 900 meters wide asteroid in 2018. It deployed several hopping rovers to study the space irradiated asteroid’s surface. Hayabusa2 fired a copper projectile which created a 10m wide crater, samples from the depths were collected by a probe. With the samples on board, Hayabusa2 left for the Earth from Ryusu (3.6 million km from the Earth) in Nov 2019 and released the capsule on 4th Dec 2020, from a distance of 220,000 km from the earth. It then left for another exciting space exploration mission.