Japanese probe ‘bombs’ asteroid 300m km away from Earth

TOKYO: A Japanese probe on Friday launched an explosive device at an asteroid, aiming to blast a crater in the surface and scoop up material that could shed light on how the solar system evolved. The explosive mission is the riskiest yet attempted by the Japanese space agency’s Hayabusa2 probe that aims to reveal more about the origins of life on Earth. Hayabusa2 successfully released as scheduled the so-called “small carry-on impactor” — a cone-shaped device capped with a copper bottom — as the probe hovered just 500 metres (1,650 feet) above the asteroid Ryugu. The impactor was programmed to explode 40 minutes later, propelling the copper bottom towards Ryugu, where it should gouge a crater into the surface of the asteroid that spins 300 million kilometres from Earth. Hayabusa2 moved smartly away from the area to avoid being damaged by debris from the explosion or colliding with Ryugu while also releasing a camera to capture images of the event. Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, told reporters that the Japanese space agency (JAXA) was able to confirm the impactor hit the surface of the asteroid based on an image captured by the camera released by the probe. “I think it’s a success. We could not have asked for more,” he said. Takashi Kubota, an engineering researcher, said the probe’s use of explosives and its “acrobatic” evasive manoeuvres were “unprecedented” and he hoped the mission would give scientists a rare peek inside an asteroid. Although the detonation was too small to move Ryugu off-orbit, JAXA scientist Makoto Yoshikawa said the ability to operate a probe to this level of precision marked “an important achievement in planetary defence” if Earth were threatened by an asteroid. — AFP