Rocks in space can reveal secrets about our solar system

A research team has managed to find a space capsule containing the first significant samples of rocks from an asteroid that they believe could reveal important secrets about our solar system.

The capsule contains material from this body close to the ground. It is a huge rock formation called “Ryugu”.

The capsule had landed by parachute near the remote area of ​​Woomera in South Australia.

These samples were collected by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2, which spent more than a year on a mission to examine this asteroid.

The capsule containing the container containing these samples separated from Hayabusa-2 and entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The official Hayabusa-2 mission Twitter page reported that the capsule and parachute it landed in were found at 19:47 GMT.

“Hayabusa-2 is back on Earth. We have collected a treasure. Everything was perfect,” mission project manager Yuichi Tsuda said Sunday morning.

He added that the container containing the samples was not damaged during disembarkation.

Earlier on Saturday, cameras captured the capsule as it landed in the form of a bright fireball rapidly rushing over the Copperbed in Australia.

It was rushing toward the ground at seven miles per second when it launched slower parachutes, then began sending out radio signals that determined its location.

The spacecraft landed in a large field in the vast Woomera region, overseen by the Royal Australian Air Force.

At around 6:07 p.m. GMT, the search team identified the capsule’s landing site, and a helicopter equipped with antennas to pick up radio signals flew over the area to capture the container.

The capsule was transported to a facility for rapid initial testing before being airlifted to Japan, where scientists plan to examine and analyze a gas sample inside.

The container, weighing 16 kg, will be transported to a special handling room of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Sagamihara for analysis of its contents.

The spacecraft mission was designed to collect over 100 mg of samples from the asteroid Ryugu.

Professor Allan Fitzsimmons, Queen’s University Belfast, said: The sample “will reveal a huge amount of information, not only about the history of the solar system, but also about these exceptional things (asteroids)”.

Samples are being analyzed at the Woomera test line. @ haya2e_jaxa @AusAirForce @DeptDefence # Hayabusa2 https://t.co/eBIukNPTgu pic.twitter.com/AK0C7TCArk

– Australian Space Agency (@AusSpaceAgency) December 6, 2020

Asteroids are the remnants of materials formed during the formation of the solar system. It is made from the same materials that went through a process to form the Earth, but it differs from it that it did not merge to form planets.

“Having samples of an asteroid and Yugo would be a really exciting discovery in our scientific field. We believe that Ryugu is made of very old rocks which will give us some idea of ​​how the solar system was formed,” said Professor Sarah Russell , responsible for the collection of planetary materials at the Natural History Museum in London. .

Our study of samples collected at Ryugu can give us an idea of ​​how water and other essentials for life appeared on Earth early in its formation.

It is believed that comets carried much of the water to Earth in the early days of the solar system. Professor Fitzsimons says that the chemical composition properties of water in comets were sometimes different from those of water in our oceans.

However, the composition of water in some asteroids outside the solar system appears to be more closely related to our water. It is possible that Ryugu was originally from the frozen region before moving into its current orbit and close to Earth.

Professor Fitzsimmons told the BBC: “Maybe we looked at comets all the time to see how water reached Earth at the start of the solar system, and of course we had to look a little closer to our planet. ; of these primitive asteroids, but rocky in their formation. “

And indeed, this is something that we should carefully examine through these samples from Ryugu, ”he added.

The Hayabusa-2 spacecraft, which passed close to Earth and launched the capsule containing the samples, will send a new mission by moving to examine a much smaller asteroid up to 30 meters wide and reach it in 2031.