insiderblm- The researchers are hopeful that the collected material, including the first samples collected from the underground material of an asteroid, may be useful for studies of the origin of life on planet Earth.
On December 6 he landed in the desert of southern Australia a capsule with samples of the asteroid Ryugu after six years of vue l o. Specialists announced on Tuesday that they found a greater than expected amount of soil and gas inside said capsule.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) continues to analyze the samples brought to Earth in a capsule of the Japanese probe Hayabusa 2 from the asteroid Ryugu.
The samples, weighing no more than 0.1 grams, were sent to Japan after initial analysis. On Monday it was announced that some black particles were initially discovered at the bottom of the capsule’s sample collector, however, a day later, researchers found more soil and gas samples in another of the compartments.
That said, the agency claimed that the contracted gas in the container is a sample from the asteroid Ryugu.
“We have confirmed a fair amount of sand apparently collected from the asteroid Ryugu, along with gases. The samples from outside our planet that we always dream of are now in our hands “, mentioned the head of the Hayabusa 2 project, Yuichi Tsuda, in a statement in which it stands out as an” important scientific milestone. “
One of the project participants, scientist Hirotaka Sawada , confirmed that he was stunned by the happiness of the discovery of the samples inside the capsule , in addition to the long-awaited dust particles, some with the sizes of small stones.
Hayabusa Mission 2
In December 2014 , Hayabusa 2 was launched on its way to the asteroid from the Japanese island of Tanegashima.Through his mission, two successful landings were made on the surface of Ryugu, with the aim of obtaining samples from deeper layers of the cosmic element.
TheResearchers are hopeful that the collected material , including the first samples collected from the underground material of an asteroid, may be useful for studies of the origin of life on planet Earth. This is because Ryugu is 4.6 billion years old on average and it would have had minimal changes since the development of the solar system.
The expert, Sawada , added that the hermetically sealed capsule successfully recovered gas samples from the asteroid, which is different from Earth’s atmospheric composition. “This is the world’s first return of a sample of a gaseous material from deep space,” the Japanese agency confirmed in the statement .
The gas could be bound with minerals from the asteroid soil and the gaseous samples are expected to be identified for determining their age, according to Ryuji Okazaki of Kyushu University.
