Japan's probe, Hayabusa2, is coming back to Earth bringing samples from Ryugu. (Image via CNN.com)

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe to deliver asteroid sample to Earth in 2020

On Tuesday, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced through its Twitter account that its space probe, Hayabusa2, had finished its mission and was on its way to going back to Earth. Initially planned to launch in December, Hayabusa2 was launched earlier because it had successfully run the pre-tests.

Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture by JAXA in a mission to discover the origin of life and the solar system by collecting the sample from an asteroid, dubbed as Asteroid Ryugu. The Japanese probe took a four-year journey before landing on the asteroid in June 2018. During its journey on Ryugu, Hayabusa2 had dispatched rovers and landers to collect samples.

Astronomers at JAXA believe that the samples from Ryugu might be able to unveil the origin of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Blasting off from Asteroid Ryugu at 10.05 a.m. JST, Hayabusa2 will travel about 800 million kilometers to deliver the asteroid sample to JAXA. It is traveling at the speed of 0.09m/s, and it takes pictures of the Ryugu while retreating. It is estimated that the probe will dispatch the sample capsule into the Earth’s atmosphere to land on the desert of South Australia in November or December 2020. After that, Hayabusa2 will perform an escape sequence to launch back into space for other missions.

Hayabusa2’s findings have been used already in 110 papers. Once the sample has been collected in 2020, the finding will be useful on Japan’s astronomical research. Should organic materials be discovered in the sample, it might reveal a huge secret on the origin of life and solar system.

Source: https://cnet.co/2KmxAyl