Hayabusa2 capsule with asteroid samples retrieved from Australian desert

TOKYO. KAZINFORM The capsule of a Japanese space probe containing the first ever sub-surface samples collected from an asteroid was retrieved Sunday from the Australian outback, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed.

The voyage took six years and covered 5 billion kilometers to collect the samples from the ancient Ryugu asteroid. It is hoped that the tiny samples, weighing less than 1 gram, will reveal details about the origin of the solar system and, beyond that, the origin of life, EFE-EPA reports.