Japan's asteroid probe has just made another hole in rock Ryugu – BGR

The asteroid probe Hayabusa2 in Japan is orbiting the space rock known as Ryugu for months and in February, it tried its most complicated maneuver to date. The craft fired a projectile at the surface of the asteroid and captured samples that it will attempt to deliver to Earth, but the mission was far from over.

Now, less than two months later, the Japanese JAXA spacecraft has authorized the probe to attempt another sample collection maneuver, requiring the shuttle to use an explosive device to launch a projectile at the surface of the rock. Hayabusa2 handlers back to Earth say that it seems that the probe and its impactor have done their job, and they have a photo as evidence.

It is difficult to collect an asteroid sample, especially with a space such as Ryugu, covered with debris. To simplify things a little, JAXA designed the probe with instruments called "small impactors in the cabin" (SCI).

The impactors function as one-shot guns, the spacecraft releasing the impactor into the space above Ryugu's surface and then withdrawing at a safe distance. The impactor then fires an explosive charge, throwing a solid bullet-shaped projectile into the rock and removing some of the surface debris.

This step is essential for the mission to sample the material constituting the asteroid instead of just capturing some of the dust from its outer layer. This time, the blast was filmed and you can clearly see a plume of dust and debris expelled from what we expect from a newly formed crater.

If the debris could damage the probe if it is too close, the JAXA will now wait a few weeks for the process to be calmed before returning to the crater and sending Hayabusa2 to its surface to perform a sampling operation.

Finally, the space shuttle will return home with these and other samples, which could help scientists better understand how asteroids form and where they come from.

Image Source: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST