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Japanese mission reaches far-off asteroid
Why it is in news?
- A Japanese probe has reached an asteroid 300 million km away to collect information about the birth of the solar system and the origin of life after a more than three-year voyage through deep space.
- The Hayabusa2 probe successfully settled into an observation position 20 km above the Ryugu asteroid.
- The successful mission came just days before the UN’s International Asteroid Day on June 30, an event to raise awareness about the hazards of an asteroid impact and on how to counter such a threat.
- Scientists hope to glean clues about what gave rise to life on the earth from samples taken from Ryugu, which is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water.
- Photos of Ryugu — which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese, a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale — show an asteroid shaped a bit like a spinning top with a rough surface.
Source
The Hindu