Japanese officials say they are satisfied with the quality of asteroid material collected by a spacecraft and returned to Earth.
Last week, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, described the specimens collected from the Ryugu asteroid in July 2019. Ryugu sits more than 300 million kilometers from the earth.
Japan’s un piloted spacecraft Hayabusa2 removed the material after blowing a hole in the asteroid.
The space agency said in July 2019 mission aimed at collecting samples from below the surface of Ryugu. During an earlier operation in February 2019, Hayabusa2 collected material from another part of the asteroid.
JAXA officials said the second collection effort resulted in samples up to 1 centimeter. The black material looks like charcoal and was very difficult, they added. It did not break apart when picked up or thrown into another container.
Earlier this month, space officials described the monsters that Hayabusa2 removed during its first mission as smaller sandy pieces. They were collected from the surface of Ryugu.
Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 and arrived near Ryugu in June 2018. The Japanese space mission aims to use the monsters to learn more about how our solar system formed.
Tomohiro Usui of JAXA is a space science scientist. He told The Associated Press that Hayabusa2 had a second use of samples to get the second set of samples in July impact to blow below the asteroid’s surface. The aim was to collect materials that are not affected by space radiation or other environmental conditions.
Usui noted that the size differences indicate different hardness of the groundwork of the asteroid. ‘One possibility is that the site of the second contact was a hard rock and broke larger particles and entered the country compartment, ”Usui said.
JAXA continues to investigate the asteroid samples before the next year full studies. After studies in Japan, some of the samples will be shared with the US space agency NASA and other international space agencies for further research.
Asteroids orbit the sun, but are much smaller than planets. It is one of the oldest objects in the solar system and can help scientists better understand how the earth evolved over time. The asteroid samples can give researchers a rare chance to study these mysterious rocky objects.
Hayabusa2 is now on another mission to a smaller asteroid called 1998KY26. JAXA expects the aircraft to take 11 years to reach that asteroid. The new mission of Hayabusa2 aims to study possible ways to prevent major meteorites of the Earth.
The only other country that has successfully collected an asteroid sample is the United States. NASA announced last month that its Osiris-Rex spacecraft had completed the sample operation on the asteroid Bennu. NASA said it was pleased that the spacecraft had collected more sample material than expected.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
The Associated Press and Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in this story
asteroid – n. any one of thousands of small planets orbiting the sun
mission – n. a flight by airplane or spacecraft to perform a specific task
charcoal – n. a hard black material made by burning wood with a small amount of air
impact – n. an object (such as a meteorite) that collides with another body
groundwork – n. the solid rock beneath the surface of the earth
compartment – n. an enclosed space or area that is usually part of something larger and that is often used to hold a specific thing
meteorite – n. a piece of rock or metal that has fallen to the ground from outer space: a meteor that reaches the surface of the earth without burning up completely