JAXA Confirms Sample is Inside Capsule Returned from Asteroid Ryugu Written 15 December 2020

The AP/CBS News reports that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) “said Monday it has confirmed the presence of black soil samples inside a capsule that the spacecraft Hayabusa2 brought back from” asteroid Ryugu last week. JAXA “said its scientists opened the capsule and found an unspecified amount of sandy black particles.” Scientists “are hoping the asteroid’s subsurface samples can provide information from billions of years ago unaffected by space radiation and other environmental factors.” JAXA scientists “say they are particularly interested in organic materials in the samples to learn about how they were distributed in the solar system and if they are related to life on Earth.” Following “studies in Japan for about a year, some of the samples will be shared with NASA and other international groups for additional research beginning in 2022.”
Full Story (CBS News)