Last year, the Japanese space program (JAXA) successfully arrived at the diamond-shaped space rock known as Ryugu. The spacecraft, known as Hayabusa2, spent the latter half of 2018 deploying tiny rovers to the asteroid’s surface and relaying lots of awesome images. Now, the probe is set to attempt its most challenging maneuver to date.
JAXA has announced that it will attempt an incredibly brief touchdown on the asteroid, while also firing a spherical projectile at its surface. It will try to collect samples from its newly-formed hole while avoiding a collision. It’ll make its move early on Friday, and none of this is going to be easy.
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Japan’s asteroid probe is about to shoot a bullet at an asteroid originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 21 Feb 2019 at 13:16:38 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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