In early December, a pill from the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft was dropped over Australia. It contained samples taken from the asteroid Ryugu, which is about a kilometer in diameter and orbits the Sun between Earth and Mars.

The thing counts At 4.6 billion years old, scientists hope the samples will give us new insights into the formation of planets and the early history of the solar system.

Unique samples

The Japanese space agency (Jaxa) is currently in the process of analyzing the samples, and this Christmas they shared photos in a tweet.

The gravel material was extracted after the first blast to the asteroid below the surface.

The largest particles in the capsule are about an inch long. Jaxa points to some metal that the arrow in the correct image is believed to be aluminum derived from the equipment used to take the samples.

Can impart new knowledge

Scientists have studied the structure of asteroids many times before, but this happened after the asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere, where it caught fire and caused damage to rocks. When an asteroid falls freely, the object changes significantly in its path to the Earth’s surface.

This sample, taken directly from an asteroid outside the atmosphere and later preserved in a capsule, will give scientists a better picture of natural biomass.

The sample is expected to contain materials similar to the early rhombic rocks formed by the planets. This will increase the understanding of how the universe was formed.

Hayabusa 2 released Rugby a year ago. Following the release of the capsule containing the sample materials, the spacecraft has paved the way for another asteroid between Earth and Mars, which is expected to arrive in 2031.

The United States also collects samples from asteroids.