Japan’s spacecraft has successfully created the first ever artificial crater in a targeted asteroid, by first shooting space bullet into the space rock and then bombed it.
Earlier this month, Japan’s spacecraft Hayabusa2 blasted a small artificial crater into the asteroid Ryugu in order to gain more samples to study. Now, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released few images of the craft bombing the asteroid, and also making history by creating first ever artificial crater.
After shooting bullet, Japan plans to bomb targeted asteroid
[CRA2] Crater formation where the Small Carry-on Impactor collided with Ryugu has been confirmed! These images compare the surface before and after the SCI collision. pic.twitter.com/BZPYlHhSjs
— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) April 25, 2019
Hayabusa2, as per The Verge, has been around and on Ryugu since June 2018 and is supposed to hang out with it some more as it is only done with a small part of the mission. The space rock was bombed so that scientists on Earth can get more samples from inside the asteroid, helping them learn more about the celestial body.
During this bombing mission, Hayabusa2 was far away from the explosion site in order to maintain its safety, but it did deploy a camera to capture the mesmerizing, historic event, while also giving the team an idea of where the blast occurred.
“Creating an artificial crater with an impactor and observing it in detail afterwards is a world-first attempt,” said project manager Yuichi Tsuda. “This is a big success.”
Moreover, according to Daily Mail, the team predicted that the surface of the asteroid is filled with boulders, yet they succeeded to create a crater this big. “This could mean there’s a scientific mechanism we don’t know or something special about Ryugu’s materials,” said one of the scientists Masahiko Arakawa.