Hayabusa-2 completed its landing late on Thursday night on to the surface of the asteroid and has since fired a bullet at the rock’s surface. If the probe’s mission on the asteroid is a success, it could help scientists understand how the Earth was formed in the early solar system. According to the New York Times, the spacecraft has gathered samples from Ryugu, which is close to the Earth and is a potentially hazardous asteroid.
Hayabusa2 was onRyugu to collecting its data before returning back to Earth.
The probe shot a bullet into the asteroid’s surface in order to make numerous small fragments which will be taken on its return journey.
The Planetary Society predicts the machine was on the surface for approximately one second before it returned to a safe distance above the asteroid.
The mission was organised by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which streamed its mission live.
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Before the mission was given the green light to go earlier today, Hayabusa-2 hovered over the space rock at a distance of about 12.5 miles (20km).
The spacecraft then spent the next few hours, gradually approaching and accelerating towards Ryugu.
Unfortunately, due to its position it will be impossible for Hayabusa-2 to beam images back to JAXA on Earth.
The spacecraft is now orbiting around 12.5 miles (20km) above the asteroid
Hayabusa-2 will continue to work on the asteroid before theme comes to return to Earth.
JAXA expects its groundbreaking spacecraft to head back to Earth at some point by the end of the year.
The asteroid samples will not be picked up on Earth at least until 2020.
Earlier in September last year, JAXA successfully landed two miniature rovers on the surface of Asteroid Ryugu.