Hayabusa2 Successfully Touches Down On Ryugu Asteroid

Arnav Dhar - Feb 25, 2019

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe successfully landed on a potentially hazardous asteroid called Ryugu.

Ryugu, a potentially hazardous, has been targeted by Japan's Space Agency JAXA for nearly a year. And it has just got shot recently.

Ryugu Asteroid — Ryugu is a potentially hazardous asteroid

Their spacecraft Hayabusa2 touched down on the mentioned asteroid successfully at about 3 p.m Pacific Time on February 22, satisfying all the research team.

The probe was intended to descend on the rough space rock and gather its sample from the asteroid's surface in only a few minutes. In order to accomplish this task, Hayabusa2 lands on a position right over the surface and shoot a 1000-kph tantalum shot at Ryugu to lift up debris and dust. The researchers had already recreated this procedure on Earth and hoped that it would also happen even at 289 million kilometers away.

The landing site of Hayabusa2 on Ryugu was near its equator, right on the east of the crater Brabo, a name inspired by a Dutch folk tale. Ryugu is also the name of the palace of a dragon in Japanese mythology.

Brian May, a legendary rock star, guitarist, and astronomer, who was featured on the stream to send his best wish to the team.

He said:

At 3:08 p.m Pacific Time, it is confirmed by JAXA that Hayabusa2 had started to ascend from Ryugu's surface.

Junichiro Kawaguchi, manager of the project, said not long after the landing:

However, they haven't known yet what the probe managed to collect as there were no sensors or detectors on Hayabusa2 to figure out. So they will just have to wait.

Japan is now the only country to successfully collect asteroids' samples after its Hayabusa1 came back from asteroid Itokawa in 2010. While it did effectively gather Itokawa's samples, the projectiles didn't successfully fire. Talking after the present landing, Kawaguchi viewed the Hayabusa2 success as "vengeance" for the previous mission.

Thanks to its 3 bullets, Hayabusa2 has more chances to get more samples from Ryugu and it will come back to Earth next year.

NASA is having a similar task with OSIRIS-REx currently orbiting the asteroid Bennu. It is hoped to come back to Earth with an example from that space rock in 4 years and NASA will then share those findings to its Japanese partners.