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Japanese Scientists Confirm Returned Asteroid Probe Contains Soil Sample

VOA News

   Scientists at Japan's space agency on Tuesday confirmed the capsule
   they recovered last week from their Hayabusa2 probe that had landed on
   an asteroid did indeed contain samples collected from that heavenly
   body.

   The Hayabusa spacecraft was launched in 2014 and arrived at the
   near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu in 2018. The probe spent about a year
   and a half orbiting, observing and eventually landing on the asteroid,
   where it collected samples.

   It headed back toward Earth last year, finally dropping its collection
   capsule into Earth's atmosphere December 5. It was recovered in a
   remote area of Australia and delivered to the Tokyo-based Japan
   Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) last week.

   At a press conference on Tuesday, JAXA scientists said they took their
   time and great care to open the capsule, to preserve any gases and
   other materials collected on Ryugu. Until it was opened, they could not
   be sure they obtained what they were after.

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