Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Tue Mar 12 2019 08:39:18 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 March 12 Touchdown on Asteroid Ryugu Video Credit: JAXA [2] Explanation: Last month, humanity bounced a robot off an asteroid. The main reason was to collect a surface sample. Despite concern over finding a safely reboundable [3] touchdown spot, Japan [4] 's robotic Hayabusa2 [5] spacecraft successfully touched down [6] -- and bounced right back from -- asteroid Ryugu. Before impact, Hayabusa2 fired a small bullet into 162173 Ryugu [7] to scattered surface material and increase the chance that Hayabusa2 [8] would be able to capture some. Next month, Hayabusa2 will fire [9] a much larger bullet into Ryugu [10] in an effort to capture sub-surface material. Near the end of this year, Hayabusa2 is scheduled to depart Ryugu [11] and begin a looping trip back to Earth, hopefully returning small pieces of this near-Earth asteroid [12] in late 2020. Studying Ryugu [13] could tell humanity [14] not only about the minor planet [15] 's surface and interior, but about what materials were available in the early Solar System [16] for the development of life [17] . Tomorrow's picture: spring sky ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [18] | Archive [19] | Submissions [20] | Index [21] | Search [22] | Calendar [23] | RSS [24] | Education [25] | About APOD [26] | Discuss [27] | > [28] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [29] (MTU [30] ) & Jerry Bonnell [31] (UMCP [32] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [33] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [34] A service of: ASD [35] at NASA [36] / GSFC [37] & Michigan Tech. U. [38] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] http://global.jaxa.jp/about/index.html [3] ap181101.html [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2 [6] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/hayabusa2-touchdown-video.html [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu [8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3hO58HFa1M&t=15 [9] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/hayabusa2-touchdown-recap.html [10] ap180924.html [11] ap180822.html [12] ap181113.html [13] http://global.jaxa.jp/article/2014/interview/vol88/ [14] https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa [15] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/in-depth/ [16] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/in-depth/ [17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis [18] ap190311.html [19] archivepix.html [20] lib/apsubmit2015.html [21] lib/aptree.html [22] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [23] calendar/allyears.html [24] /apod.rss [25] lib/edlinks.html [26] lib/about_apod.html [27] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190312 [28] ap190313.html [29] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [30] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [31] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [32] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [33] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [34] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [35] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [36] https://www.nasa.gov/ [37] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [38] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .