承载龙宫小行星的样品舱返回地球

2020年12月14日

Capsule Returns from Asteroid Ryugu
Video Credit: JAXA, Hayabusa2

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.

Experts Debate: How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life?

Tomorrow’s picture: Jupiter meets Saturn

承载龙宫小行星的样品舱返回地球
影片提供: JAXA, Hayabusa2

说明: 天空这道光痕，源自从小行星返回地球的样品舱。它在这个月初，携带取自近地小行星-龙宫（162173 Ryugu）表面的小石头和尘埃回到地球。这个样品罐，是由日本的隼鸟二号母船所释放，它在2018年造访龙宫小行星，在2019年取得表面样品，并在回程掠过时将之送回地球。这个返回舱在开展降落伞后，飘落在澳洲的荒野。另一个类似的任务─美国航太总署的OSIRIS-REx探测船，最近刚收集到性质相近的贝努小行星之岩石和尘埃，并预定在2023年把样品送回地球。分析这些小行星的物质，或许能让人类对太阳系早期的状态获得新洞见，并取得水及有机化合物如何来到地球的新线索。

专家辩论：人类将如何首先发现外星生命？

明日的图片: Jupiter meets Saturn