Samples from asteroid Ryugu, collected by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, are set to land in Australia on December 6, local time, as announced yesterday by officials from the space agencies of Japan and Australia.
Landing on an asteroid's surface has long been the stuff of science fiction, like in the film Armageddon. But in 2018, reality surpassed imagination when JAXA, Japan's space agency, deployed two tiny robots from the Hayabusa2 probe onto Ryugu, a 900-meter-diameter asteroid orbiting about 350 million kilometers from Earth.
These robots captured stunning images of the surface, revealing the alien terrain and enabling mission scientists to precisely map the topography for subsequent operations.
The mission's primary goal was to collect pristine samples and return them to Earth for analysis.
In 2019, Hayabusa2 touched down on Ryugu twice—February and July—firing a small projectile each time to expose subsurface material and collect dust particles, which were securely contained.
The spacecraft began its return journey in November 2020. While a December landing was anticipated, the exact date was confirmed yesterday.
The Ryugu samples will touch down at the Woomera Range Complex on December 6. This South Australian site is managed by the Royal Australian Air Force.
Scientists worldwide are poised to study these samples using advanced lab instruments. They promise insights into asteroid formation, evolution, and their role in delivering life's building blocks to Earth, given Ryugu's carbon-rich composition.
Meanwhile, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission orbits Bennu, another carbon-rich asteroid 500 meters wide, since December 2018. Sample collection is slated for October 2020, with return to Earth in September 2023 at a Utah landing site.
Source
