Astronomy Picture of the Day - Capsule Returns from Asteroid Ryugu

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 14 Dec, 2002 | Video Credit: JAXA, Hayabusa2

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: The streak across the sky is a capsule returning from an asteroid. It returned earlier this month from the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu carrying small rocks and dust from its surface. The canister was released by its mothership, Japan's Hayabusa2, a mission that visited Ryugu in 2018, harvested a surface sample in 2019, and zoomed back past Earth. The jettisoned return capsule deployed a parachute and landed in rural Australia. A similar mission, NASA's OSIRIS- REx, recently captured rocks and dust from a similar asteroid, Bennu, and is scheduled to return its surface sample to Earth in 2023. Analyses of compounds from these asteroids holds promise to give humanity new insights about the early Solar System and new clues about how water and organic matter came to be on Earth.

[MtnClimber]

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[MtnClimber]

The APOD feature today is a video of the return pod streaking across the sky. The video is at the link. Posted here is a photo of the ground recovery of the capsule in Australia. >p>

Japan Space Agency team members recover the Hayabusa2 re-entry capsule, which contains samples from asteroid Ryugu, on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2020. Image credit: JAXA, via Shutterstock

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌

[ETL]

[ETL]

Asteroid 162173 Ryugu

[ETL]

The asteroid in that last animated graphic apparently has the outer aqua-colored orbit. Earth, for some reason, is red (not blue), Venus green and Mercury blue.

[diatomite]

Wow. The re-entry capsule is so tiny. I expected it to be several times larger than that.

[Larry Lucido]

Is that where that get that beef from? No, that’s Wagyu.

[Flick Lives]

I remember when Mom use to make spaghetti and meatballs with Ryugu sauce.

[MtnClimber]

I think I saw the marble I lost when I was a kid.

[MtnClimber]

What if they accidentally spilled that capsule’s contents on the ground? Do you think they would scoop up what they could and put it back in and then keep quiet about it?

[ETL]

That’s funny, because I thought I saw the missing set of keys to my ‘73 Buick. I had lost them 40+ years ago.

[MtnClimber]

40+ years ago I had a 1969 Buick Riviera with a 430 4bbl.

[ETL]

[ETL]

Nice! Mine was a '73 Regal. White with burgundy interior and burgundy padded landau half roof.

Couldn't find one in that color scheme. But this one otherwise looks like it, if you add on the burgundy padded vinyl half roof, and change the car color from brown to white.

[blueunicorn6]

I guess you wear a helmet in case something jumps out at you.

Wait....

It’s Australia.....

Something probably will jump out at you.

Might want some body armor.

[MtnClimber]

My car looked like this, only metallic blue.

[ETL]

Very nice. I've always liked the Rivieras.

[MayflowerMadam]

I had an ‘85 Riviera; I loved that car. Lots of power. Plowed through the snow in Anchorage better than Jeeps. Gorgeous midnight blue.

[Ben Dover]

I’m going to watch “The Andromeda Strain” tonight.