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The Japanese Hiabusa-2 probe has launched a preliminary step to bombard the Ryugu asteroid and create an industrial crater on its surface, the Japanese space agency announced.
The probe began to approach the surface of the asteroid to reduce the distance between 20 km and 500 meters after 20 hours.
It will then be separated by a special unit to approach the asteroid, where it will explode and bombard a two-kilogram copper shell, flying two meters per second to the surface of the plane. # 39; asteroid.
A large artificial crater should be created as a result of the impact of the asteroid. A special camera will photograph this process. The probe will fly to the opposite side of the asteroid to prevent it from being hit by shrapnel from the blast.
Scientists hope to discover the probe, which will descend next May, on the surface of the asteroid inside the hole, the rocks are in good condition since the formation of the solar system. The rocks should contain traces of water and organic matter that will help scientists solve the mystery of the spread of life in the universe.
The asteroid "Ryugo" between Mars and the Earth measures 900 meters. The Hayabusa-2 probe was launched in December 2014.
The same probe weighs 600 kg. It is an improved version of the Hayabusa-1 probe, which, for the first time in 2010, brought soil samples from the asteroid "Itokava" after crossing 6 billion kilometers into the cosmic space.
Source: TASS
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