Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission advances to next level

The Japanese spacecraft, Hayabusa 2, successfully landed on Ryugu asteroid as part of its multi-year mission of collecting samples from the surface of the asteroid. The spacecraft completed the next phase of landing on the asteroid, shooting the specially-crafted bullet into it and returning to space, Tech Crunch reported.

In the earlier mission, which was a seven-year voyage, the Hayabusa 2 observed the asteroid, collected samples, and returned to the Earth. In the sequel mission, scientists believe that the samples collected from Ryugu could offer clues to support a hypothesis of how water and life formed on the surface of the Earth. Ryugu asteroid has been identified as carbon-rich (a C-type), indicating the presence of water in its rocks. The Hayabusa 2 is expected to return to Earth in 2020.