Japan to drop a bomb on the asteroid
KIEV. March 19. UNN. Space Agency of Japan (JAXA) said that his spacecraft Hayabusa2 after landing last month on a remote asteroid dropped on him the explosives to make the crater, from where they will collect groundwater samples for possible clues about the origin of the Solar system. About it UNN reported with reference to the Phys.org.
Hayabusa2, which landed on the asteroid on February 22, reset impact device the size of a Golf ball weighing 2 kg to the asteroid on 5 April to gather deeper out of the ground samples that were not exposed to the sun or cosmic radiation.
According to project engineer, JAXA Takano, Saeko, for the job you need to the spacecraft quickly moved to the other side of the asteroid, so he was not injured from the shrapnel from the explosion. “It will be very difficult,” he added.
Moving away, Hayabusa2 will leave the camera for fixing the result. The spacecraft has to wait a few weeks before returning to the crater area for observation.
The mission will allow scientists of JAXA to investigate the crater, to determine the history of asteroid, said koji WADA, which is responsible for the project.
Last year the Japanese probe reached the asteroid to explore origin of life.