The Japanese Hayabusa 2 lands successfully on a remote asteroid

The Hiabusa 2 was successfully installed for a short time on the asteroid Ryugo, located more than 300 million kilometers from the Earth, which allowed to collect the dust of the soil likely to help illuminate the formation of the solar system .

The aircraft landed as planned for a few seconds on the surface of the asteroid, an extruder to stir the dust and take samples.

"We are very satisfied, we have landed very well and we are very happy," said one of the mission leaders at a press conference.

He added that the vehicle "returned as planned to its orbital position around Ryugo and sent the first signals indicating that contact with the asteroid had already taken place".

The images taken by the vehicle on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid show the impact of the short landing.

The descent of the vehicle to the Ryugu asteroid started at 4:15 GMT.

The Hayabusa 2 adventure began on December 3, 2014 with a 3.2 billion km long journey to reach Ryugu, 340 million kilometers from Earth, impossible to reach in a straight line.

It took three years and ten months to reach its destination.

The goal of the mission is to enrich the knowledge of the space environment "for a better understanding of the emergence of life on Earth," according to the Japanese Space Agency.

The Japanese vehicle is expected to return to Earth in 2020 after several attempts to land.