“It’s really in the middle of nowhere,” said Shogo Tachibana, the principal investigator in charge of the analysis of the Hayabusa2 samples. To gather these samples, Hayabusa2 arrived at the asteroid in June 2018. Part of the Ryugu samples will go to NASA, which is bringing back some rocks and soil from another asteroid with its OSIRIS-Rex mission. “The similarities and differences are absolutely fascinating.”Connolly hopes to go to Japan next summer to take part in analysing the Ryugu samples. Dropping off the Ryugu samples is not the end of the Hayabusa2 mission.

Source: bd News24 December 06, 2020 04:52 UTC