A JAPANESE space explorer has arrived at an asteroid after a three-and-a-half-year journey and now begins its real work of trying to blow a crater to collect samples to eventually bring back to Earth.
The unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft reached its base of operations about 12 miles from the asteroid and some 170 million miles from Earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
Over the next year and a half, the spacecraft will attempt three brief touch-and-go landings to collect samples.If the retrieval and the return journey are successful, the asteroid material could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth.
The robotic explorer will spend about two months looking for suitable landing places on the uneven surface.
Due to the high surface temperature, it will stay for only a few seconds each time it lands.
The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 900m (3,000ft) in diameter.
In photos released by JAXA, the asteroid appears more cube-shaped than round.
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