Hayabusa-2 Probe

Why in the News?

Recently, scientists made the hypothesis after analysing samples from the asteroid Ryugu, collected by the Hayabusa-2 probe.

Key Points:

About Hayabusa-2 Mission

• The Hayabusa-2 mission was launched in 2014 to study the asteroid Ryugu.
• Launching Agency: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) 
• Purpose: It seeks to answer some fundamental questions like:
  • the origins of the solar system and water molecules.
• Hayabusa-2 delivered a small capsule that contained the rock and dust samples when it was 220,000 km from the Earth’s atmosphere.

Image Source: National Centre for Space Studies

What is an Asteroid?

• Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets. They are also called minor planets. 
• Asteroids are divided into three classes:
  • First, those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million asteroids.
  • The second group is that of trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet. 
  • The third classification is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close by the Earth. 

Why do scientists study asteroids?

• Scientists study asteroids to look for information about the formation and history of planets and the sun.
• Another reason for studying asteroids is to look for asteroids that could possibly crash into Earth, leading to potentially hazardous consequences.

News Source: The Indian Express