Japan's own space probe, Hayabusa2, in action in space (Image via: Wikipedia)

JAXA: 10 Artificial Craters Found at Ryugu Asteroid

TOKYO - Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) found 10 artificial craters on asteroid. Hayabusa2, Japan’s own spacecraft, was making a crater, when it found 10 other craters, smaller than the first one, on the Ryugu asteroid.

On 5 April, Hayabusa2 fired a bullet at Ryugu to make an artificial crater in order to calculate the age of the asteroid. It turned out that the debris of the asteroid was the cause of origin of the other 10 craters, much smaller than the artificial crater made by Hayabusa2. The crater made by Hayabusa is 10 meters in diameter and around 3 meters in depth, a measurement that can be explored by mankind.

The probe was launched in December 2014, as part of Japan’s quest in search of deeper knowledge about the origin of life in this universe and our solar system. Hayabusa2 took 2.5 years to reach the asteroid, located 340 million km off the Earth, precisely in June 2017.

In February 2019, Hayabusa2 managed to land on the asteroid. The landing was actually a product of delay since the initial landing schedule was held in October. However, since the surface was still too rough, the team decided to postpone the time.

With this finding, JAXA hopes that Hayabusa2 would find a nice site to collect more samples on Ryugu to be brought home later on, in order to measure the surface and to calculate its age.

Hayabusa2 has to go back home in December 2020, after completing its examination over the asteroid. When it reaches home, the astronomers expect to see how an asteroid material looks like before it was ground and made radioactive by Earth’s thick atmosphere.

Source: http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190510/p2g/00m/0na/008000c