A 'Rare Event In Human History': Astroid Samples Are Brought To Earth

Japan is making history on Saturday as it brings back the first-ever beneath the surface rock samples of an asteroid.

The Hayabusa2 probe launched into space in December 2014, and it landed on Ryugu, a diamond-shaped asteroid. The probe is about the size of a fridge.

There was a capsule that was attached to the probe and that’s what was released back to Earth on Saturday.

This is so important because this is only the second time untouched material from an asteroid has been brought back to Earth, according to CBS News. Yuichi Tsuda, the project manager of the mission called it a “rare event in human history.”

The samples can give an insight to scientists to really know how various matter in space is spread across the solar system and how it affects the Earth.

Some scientists think that the rocks that make up the asteroid the probe landed on are somewhere around four billion years old.

"We may be able to get substances that will give us clues to the birth of a planet and the origin of life... I'm very interested to see the substances," Makoto Yoshikawa, the mission manager told reporters.

The capsule that was released shot across Australian skies and landed somewhere in the Australian outback. The parachute that was opened alerted those within the JAXA, Japan’s national aerospace and space agency.

Once the capsule is found in Australia, officials will do two things: process the samples and send them off to Japan, JAXA and NASA, and a set of samples will be saved for future studies.

NASA has also collected an asteroid sample from “Bennu.” The capsule will be released back to Earth in 2023 for more research.