A capsule containing the first significant quantities of rock from an asteroid parachuted down in South Australia on Saturday evening
A recovery team in Australia found the spacecraft in perfect condition. Astrophysicist, professor. Lisa Harvey-Smiths commented:
“It is not always good when space rocks fall to earth but fortunately this was very controlled. In fact, it was an amazing technological achievement and this sample coming back in a little metal capsule, a sort of human-made flying saucer, if you will, coming back from this 4.6 billion-years-old asteroid, Ryugu, which is just about 900 metres in diameter, but absolutely pristine rock made from parts of the outer solar nebula from which all the planets around in the solar system were made.”
The mission planned to collect a sample of more than 100mg from the asteroid and the 16kg container is now on route to a curation chamber at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for analysis and storage.