Japanese Space Agency Detonates Explosives on Moving Asteroid

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Japan's space agency said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft released an explosive onto an asteroid to make a crater on its surface. They hope to collect underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system. Today's crater mission was risky for Hayabusa2, as it had to immediately get away so it wouldn't get hit by flying debris from the blast.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Hayabusa2 dropped a 2kg baseball-sized copper explosive onto the asteroid this morning before evacuating safely and intact. JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2 back to the site after dust and debris settle, for observations from above and to collect samples from underground that have not been exposed to the sun or space rays. Scientists hope the samples will help determine the history of the asteroid and our planet. If successful, it would be the first time a spacecraft collected such materials, according to JAXA.

In 2005 a NASA mission to a comet observed fragments after blasting the surface but did not collect them. After dropping the explosive, the spacecraft was to move quickly to the other side of the asteroid to avoid flying shards from the blast. While moving away, Hayabusa2 left a camera to capture the outcome, which will take time to reach Earth for analysis.

Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a tiny flat surface on the boulder-rich asteroid in February, when the spacecraft collected surface dust and debris. The craft is scheduled to leave the asteroid at the end of 2019 and bring surface fragments and underground samples back to Earth in late 2020.

The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 300 million kilometres from Earth.
© AAP 2019