It's been a year since Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft left Ryugu asteroid. The spacecraft is bringing an early New Year's gift for Space Researchers and Space Scientists. A sample of the asteroid Ryugu!
The spacecraft had chosen over Southern Australia to drop a capsule containing the sample. So why is this sample so important? It contains important data. The asteroid holds information on the origin of the solar system. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency is rejoicing. After years, their hard work is leading to success. The sample is taken from the under the surface of the satellite. The surface often gets contaminated by space radiations and other things. The underside remains the same. So the data is untampered!
Study of this samples can lead to great leaps in answering the question on Origin of Solar system as well as Universe and life on Earth. The Project Mission Director of Hayabusa2, Makoto Yoshikawa said that,
"Organic materials are origins of life on Earth,but we still don’t know where they came from. We are hoping to find clues to the origin of life on Earth by analysing details of the organic materials brought back by Hayabusa2."
The capsule is protected by the heat shield. However, a lot of control will be required to ensure the successful drop of the capsule. The project started in 2014 and now it's in one of the most crucial stages. Apart from the under surface samples, the capsule also contains a dirt sample. The capsule will be dropped from 220,000 kilometres and the parachute will open up from 10 kilometres. Between this, at 200 kilometres the capsule will be forced to huge amounts of friction as it will enter the earth's atmosphere.
Everyone has high hopes from this research to solve some mysteries of the universe.
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