EARLY XMAS GIFT FROM 180MILLION MILES AWAY
Asteroid sample may hold clue to origin of life on Earth
A ‘TREASuRE box’ from a sixyear space mission returned safely to Earth yesterday – and could hold vital clues to the origins of the solar system, as well as to life on Earth.
Japanese space officials said they were overjoyed at the safe landing of a capsule containing samples from a distant asteroid.
The precious cargo captured by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere in a fireball cutting across the night sky, before parachuting down into the Australian Outback.
‘We were able to land the treasure box,’ said Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa). ‘I really look forward to opening it and looking inside.’
Hayabusa2 left the asteroid Ryugu, 180million miles from Earth, a year ago. After it released the capsule from 136,700 miles away in space on Saturday, the craft set off on a new expedition to another asteroid.
Scientists believe the samples, especially ones from below the asteroid’s surface, contain valuable data unaffected by space radiation and other environmental factors.
They are particularly interested in how recovered organic materials relate to life on Earth. ‘We have high expectations that the sample analysis will lead to further research into the origin of the solar system and how water was transported to Earth,’ said Jaxa president Hiroshi Yamakawa.
The return of the capsule with the world’s first asteroid sub- surface samples comes weeks after Nasa’s OSIRIS-REx craft made a touch-and-go grab of samples from asteroid Bennu. China, meanwhile, announced recently that its lunar lander collected underground materials and sealed them within the craft for return to Earth.
Jaxa officials said the Ryugu samples will be distributed to
Nasa and other key international research groups, with about 40 per cent stored for future technological advancement, to resolve unanswered questions.
Thomas Zurbuchen, of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, congratulated the Japan space agency and said: ‘Together, we’ll gain a better understanding of the origins of our solar system, and the source of water and organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth.’
Motoo Ito, senior researcher at the Japan Agency for MarineEarth Science and Technology, said: ‘We’ve never had materials like this before... this is a very valuable opportunity.’
More than 70 Jaxa staff had been working i n Woomera, southern Australia, to prepare for the return. The pan-shaped capsule, 15ins in diameter, was found inside the planned landing area and retrieved by a helicopter team. Its cargo is expected to amount to no more than 0.1g of material.
Hayabusa2, launched in 2014, is now off to a small asteroid called 1998KY26 on a journey due to take 11 years one way. It will carry out research into finding ways to prevent meteorites from hitting Earth.
Asteroids are among the oldest objects in the solar system and therefore may help to explain how our planet evolved.
Ryugu i n Japanese means ‘Dragon Palace’, the name of a sea-floor castle in a folk tale.