Apr 25 (NHK) - A Japanese space probe is scheduled on Thursday to film an artificial crater made on the asteroid Ryugu in an impact experiment.
The impact test, the world's first of its kind, was carried out on April 5. A metal projectile was fired into the asteroid's surface. Officials of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, say it was a success.
JAXA plans to determine how the asteroid's surface features have changed.
To avoid being damaged by debris from the impact, the space probe Hayabusa2 took a detour and returned to the position 20 thousand meters above the asteroid after two weeks.
On Wednesday, shortly after 4:40 p.m., the probe began to descend toward the asteroid to shoot its first image after the impact test.
It will stop its descent around 11:16 a.m. on Thursday at 1,700 meters above the asteroid.
From this position, the probe will spend about one hour from 11:38 a.m. filming images of the impacted area.
JAXA officials plan to compare the images taken on Thursday with those filmed before the experiment to determine changes in Ryugu's surface features. They will then examine rocks from the asteroid's interior.
Source: ANNnewsCH
