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Artist representation of the Hayabusa-2 working on the asteroid 'Ryugu'. (Image Source - JAXA, Akihiro Ikeshita) |
Friday morning saw Japan detonate a small explosive on the asteroid 'Ryugu'. The goal was to create a crater which will be studied later to better understand how the planets were formed in the early solar system. The Hayabusa-2, Japan's spacecraft is said to have carried out the operation on 'Ryugu, an asteroid that is a remnant of the early solar system and may be about 4.5 billion years old. This asteroid is located between the Earth and Mars.
[SCI] The deployable camera, DCAM3, successfully photographed the ejector from when the SCI collided with Ryugu’s surface. This is the world’s first collision experiment with an asteroid! In the future, we will examine the crater formed and how the ejector dispersed. pic.twitter.com/eLm6ztM4VX— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) April 5, 2019
The explosive device, called the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI), was released from Hayabusa-2. The SCI, a 14kg conical container, was packed with plastic explosive intended to punch a 10m-wide hole in the asteroid. The probe also left behind a camera to observe the explosion and send back a few photographs to Earth.
Friday's mission was the riskiest one yet for Hayabusa-2, as it also had to get away from the point of impact in order to avoid getting hit from the flying shards of the blast. Earlier, Hayabusa-2 had landed on 'Ryugu' in February this year and fired a bullet into its surface for further research.
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