Reuters reports on the success of the Hayabusa2 mission. The spacecraft, gone for six years, has finally come home with stuff scooped from an asteroid… that may reveal how life came to be in our solar system:
Named for the peregrine falcon, the Hayabusa2 blasted off for the asteroid Ryugu in December 2014, overcoming an unexpectedly rough landing surface to collect samples of asteroid dust in a capsule.
That capsule plunged to earth in Australia on Sunday and was flown to Japan. The final stage of its journey was by truck to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) research centre outside Tokyo, where it was greeted by a crowd of excited researchers.
“The capsule has returned, I was out at the gate to see it,” project manager Yuichi Tsuda told a news conference.
“The realization that it had gone all the way to the asteroid and back came welling up, and I felt as if something had squeezed my heart.”
Asteroids are believed to have formed at the dawn of the solar system, and scientists say the sample may contain organic matter that could have contributed to life on Earth.