A spacecraft brings home asteroid dust

Hayabusa2 was a spacecraft from Japan. It was sent to visit an asteroid called Ryugu.

Ryugu is a dark, rocky asteroid shaped a bit like a spinning top. It is just under a kilometre wide.

Hayabusa2 reached Ryugu in 2018. It briefly touched the surface and collected small grains of rock and dust. It even fired a small object at the asteroid to make a little crater, and collected material from close by.

Then it set off for home. In December 2020, it dropped a small capsule towards Earth. The capsule slowed down with a parachute and landed safely in the Australian desert.

Inside was about 5 grams of Ryugu, about as much as a teaspoon of sugar. It was a very clean sample: it had never touched Earth's air or ground.

Scientists found water locked inside its minerals, and many carbon chemicals. Ryugu is very like a rare kind of meteorite.