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Japan's Hayabusa 2 Successfully Touches Down On Ryugu Asteroid, Fires Bullet Into Its Surface (theguardian.com)
Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has successfully touched down on the asteroid Ryugu at around 11:30 GMT on Thursday. "Data from the probe showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had reached the asteroid's surface, according to officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)," reports The Guardian. From the report: The probe was due to fire a bullet at the Ryugu asteroid, to stir up surface matter, which it will then collect for analysis back on Earth. The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born. The complicated procedure took less time than expected and appeared to go without a hitch, said Hayabusa 2 mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa. The spacecraft is seeking to gather 10g of the dislodged debris with an instrument named the Sampler Horn that hangs from its underbelly. Whatever material is collected by the spacecraft will be stored onboard until Hayabusa 2 reaches its landing site in Woomera, South Australia, in 2020 after a journey of more than three billion miles. UPDATE: JAXA says it successfully fired a "bullet" into Ryugu, collecting the disturbed material. "JAXA scientists had expected to find a powdery surface on Ryugu, but tests showed that the asteroid is covered in larger gravel," reports CNN. "As a result the team had to carry out a simulation to test whether the projectile would be capable of disturbing enough material to be collected by [the Sampler Horn]. The team is planning a total of three sampling events over the next few weeks."
I heard the mission was largely a success, except that Bruce Willis didn't make it back.
"Lets fire bullets at it" every single darn meeting!
In other news, Hayabusa is now preparing to shoot two slightly smaller and faster asteroids.
"Mama just killed an asteroid Put a gun against it's head Pulled the trigger now it's dead....? Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
and YouTube immediately demonetized them.
{O,o}
Dear Asteroid: The dinosaurs say "HELLO" *bang*
Despite all me rage I am still just a primate in a gravity well.
Any news of oil on Ryugu?
Does JAXA have video of their mission control celebrating that historic moment for the space agency?
Would this count as a Mass Shooting?
#BanAssaultProbes
Do they think it's wise to bring an organic sample from the astroid down here to earth? Wouldn't it be safer to first check it out at ISS, so if something is wrong with the sample we won't have a big dissaster on our hands here on earth.
But it refused. So unfortunately we had to take it down.
It's a nest of discarded K-cups, Pokemon balls surrounding Godzilla eggs. And Mama is pissed you just shot it. Yolk's on you.. Oh no, there goes Tokyo. Go go Godzilla.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Mom's Demand Action and Handgun Control, Inc are planning to protest.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
We in the US are building a big, beautiful wall.
Why initially hypothesize powder on the surface? I suppose on one hand you've got the asteroid's weak gravity hovering it up as it goes through space. On the other hand there's high velocity impacts of tiny particles adding enough energy to liberate the finer stuff.
we fire first. Now wonder we can't have nice first contacts as no alien nation wants to be shot on sight.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Go Israel? Dude, that rocket they launched yesterday is the slowest rocket ever launched. It's gonna take it 40 days and 40 nights just to get there!
Go ahead and start justifying what America did in 'Nam. You wanted to open old wounds.
Doesn't bode well.
So, Hayabusa-kun has touched down on top of Ryugu-chan and successfully penetrated her.
My inner weeb is not going to apologize for this comment.