The Japanese Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer has begun descending toward Ryugu asteroid, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Thursday
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st February, 2019) The Japanese Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer has begun descending toward Ryugu asteroid, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Thursday.
The descent was initially scheduled to take place in October 2018, but it was postponed as JAXA had received new data about the surface of the asteroid, which turned out to be rougher than initially thought. According to the agency, Hayabusa2 now will briefly touch down on a relatively flat area six meters (20 feet) in diameter to take samples from the surface of the asteroid.
Hayabusa2 probe is expected to make up to three such landings by the end of this year, and then deliver the collected samples to Earth.
Hayabusa2 asteroid sample-return mission was launched in December 2014.
Ryugu, approximately 1 kilometer in diameter, is a potentially dangerous near-Earth object. It orbits the Sun at 0.96-1.41 astronomical units every 474 days.
