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The Japanese space agency said on Thursday that 10 other smaller artificial craters were found on an asteroid after its space probe Hayabusa2 produced an artificial crater last month as part of its mission to explore the origin of life. and the evolution of the solar system.
On April 5, when the asteroid explorer fired a metal object against the Ryugu asteroid in order to create a crater in the world's first experiment, scattered fragments of the impactor were reveals other craters about 1 meter in diameter, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
The newly discovered craters, as well as the first found earlier – measuring approximately 10 meters in diameter and 2 to 3 meters deep – should help the agency examine the surface of the asteroid and estimate its age, according to JAXA.
The agency will continue its research on the surface of Ryugu, about 340 million kilometers from the Earth, in the hope of having found in June a site conducive to the collection of additional surface samples by Hayabusa2 as a result of the first procedure of this type in February.
Launched in December 2014 from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, Hayabusa2 reached Ryugu last June and is expected to return to Earth by the end of 2020 after completing its mission.
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