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TOKYO (AP) – A Japanese spacecraft approaches Earth after a year-long trip home from a distant asteroid with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the origins of the solar system, said Friday an official of the space agency.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft left asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth, a year ago and is expected to reach Earth and deposit a capsule containing the precious samples in the south of the ‘Australia December 6.
Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency believe that the samples, especially those taken from below the asteroid’s surface, contain valuable data unaffected by space radiation and other environmental factors.
Makoto Yoshikawa, head of the Hayabusa2 project mission, said scientists were particularly interested in analyzing organic matter in Ryugu soil samples.
“Organic matter is the source of life on Earth, but we still don’t know (asterisk) where it came from,” Yoshikawa said. “We hope to find clues to the origin of life on Earth by analyzing the details of the organic material reported by Hayabusa2.”
JAXA, the space agency, plans to drop the capsule containing the samples in a remote and sparsely populated area of Australia 220,000 kilometers (136,700 miles) in space, a big challenge requiring precision control. The capsule, protected by a heat shield, will transform into a fireball upon re-entering the atmosphere 200 kilometers (125 miles) above the ground. About 10 kilometers (6 miles) above the ground, a parachute will open to prepare for landing, and beacon signals will be transmitted to indicate its location.
JAXA personnel set up satellite dishes at several locations in the target area to pick up signals, while also preparing marine radars, drones and helicopters to aid in the search and recovery mission.
Without these measurements, a search for the pan-shaped capsule with a diameter of 40 centimeters (15 inches) “would be extremely difficult,” Yoshikawa told reporters.
For Hayabusa2, this is not the end of the mission started in 2014. After dropping the capsule, it will return to space and head to another small distant asteroid called 1998KY26 for a journey that will last 10 years.
Hayabusa2 has landed on Ryugu twice, despite its extremely rocky surface, and has successfully collected data and samples in the 1.5 years since arriving in June 2018.
During the first hit in February 2019, it collected surface dust samples. In July, he collected samples from the asteroid underground for the first time in space history after landing in a crater he had previously created by blowing up the asteroid’s surface.
Scientists said there were traces of carbon and organic matter in the asteroid soil samples. JAXA hopes to find clues as to how materials are distributed in the solar system and are related to life on Earth.
Asteroids, which orbit the sun but are much smaller than planets, are some of the oldest objects in the solar system and therefore can help explain how Earth evolved.
It took 3 and a half years for the spacecraft to get to Ryugu, but the return trip was much shorter due to the current locations of Ryugu and Earth.
Ryugu in Japanese means “Dragon Palace”, the name of a castle at the bottom of the sea in a Japanese folk tale.
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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at hpps: //www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
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