Japan got more than expected from its asteroid probe – BGR

• Japan has revealed more information about what its Hayabusa2 asteroid probe captured during its mission and recently dropped on Earth.
• The country’s space agency JAXA says it has obtained more material than it expected and has offered new images that show more of the asteroid sample that was collected during the mission.
• The asteroid’s material will now be investigated, and it’s unclear what interesting things the researchers might find.

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See all that dark brown, sandy stuff in the image above? This is not coffee grounds, believe it or not, but asteroid material that was brought back to Earth by the Japanese asteroid probe Hayabusa2. The spacecraft recently deposited its payload of asteroid material in Australia, which was then shipped to Japan where impatient scientists are waiting to study it.

In a press release a day or two ago, JAXA showed an image of its sample collection container that showed what appeared to be a very small amount of material. Now, in an updated statement and new image, we can see that there was actually quite a bit more asteroid soil than we initially thought, and JAXA says it is overwhelmed by the success of the mission.

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It has now been reported that the Japanese space agency has received even more asteroid material than it expected. The sample initially looked small in the images released to the public, but the new images show even more material than before. The agency owes this to the fact that the spacecraft performed two sample-taking maneuvers and it appears that the compartment used during the first touchdown contains even more material than scientists thought.

This is truly amazing news for JAXA, as well as for the scientific community as a whole, because obtaining material from an asteroid for study on Earth is no small feat. “We have confirmed a fair amount of sand apparently collected on the asteroid Ryugu, as well as gas,” Yuichi Tsuda, JAXA Hayabusa2 project manager, said in a recorded video message released by the space agency. “Samples from outside our planet, which we have long dreamed of, are now in our hands.”

What’s particularly exciting for the scientists at JAXA is that attempts to take samples have managed to snag not only dusty material, but larger pieces as well. These pebbles and small rocky debris could provide even more information about the formation and life of the asteroid, as well as other rocky bodies in our solar system.

Hayabusa2’s long journey to the space rock Ryugu, the study period in orbiting the space rock, and the return trip took years. Now that the samples are back on Earth, it will be interesting to see what kinds of discoveries can be made. We probably won’t have to wait long before research using the asteroid samples begins to surface.