We just received a nonsensical photo of a Japanese spacecraft after sampling an asteroid

The Japanese space agency has achieved something extraordinary this week. His Hayabusa2 spacecraft landed on the Ryugu asteroid, took a sample and jumped again.

To remember, we now have an epic photo of Ryugu's surface, potentially revealing of this historic encounter.

Hayabusa2 actually arrived at Ryugu in June of last year and dropped a pair of tiny rovers the size of a cookie tin to explore the asteroid in September. (Because they are so small and the terrain is very rough, these rovers move by hopping on the ground.)

But the spaceship did not just go there to drop rovers. The most exciting part of Hayabusa's mission2 is to bring back an asteroid sample to Earth.

Here is how you get a sample of an asteroid. On February 22, Hayabusa2 made his first touchdown on Ryugu – and shot him.

Yes, he fired a tantalum ball at a speed of 300 meters per second (984 feet per second) into the surface of the asteroid. This impact has resulted in materials that – hopefully – have been introduced into Hayabusa's pending collection cartridge2.

(JAXA, University of Tokyo and collaborators)

In total, the meeting took less than a minute. The new image was taken a minute after touchdown, while the probe had already bounced off the asteroid and turned its back at an altitude of about 25 meters (82 feet).

The photo shows the shadow of the spacecraft as it ascended, as well as mysterious dark marks on the landing site that were not there before the 39th. ;landing.

There is a useful markup of this in the image below – the purple circle shows the landing site before (left) and after (right). The red arrow indicates that the Hayabusa2 guide mark fell on the asteroid before touchdown.

(JAXA, University of Tokyo and collaborators)

"At the present time", writes on its website the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), "the reason for the discoloration is unknown, but perhaps because of the grain pushed by the thrusters or projectiles (projectiles ). "

Fortunately, we may have the opportunity to observe the phenomenon again. It was only the first of three touchdowns in the sample collection – which means there will be two more before Hayabusa2 farewell to Ryugu and embarks on the long journey back home. him in December of this year.

We will be interested to see these affected. And, of course, what we learn from Ryugu samples – and how they compare to the samples of the asteroid Itokawa, brought to Earth by the predecessor of the spacecraft, the original Hayabusa , in 2010.