Hayabusa2 performs subsurface rock sampling

[brian livesey]

In April, asteroid probe Hayabusa2 exposed subsurface material on asteroid Ryugu with an explosive charge.
Now, Japan's space agency , Jaxa, has successfully returned the probe to the asteroid's surface to collect fresh subsurface rubble specimens that have not been altered by cosmic and solar radiation since the formation of the solar system.
Takashi Kubota of the Jaxa team said: "It was a big success...in all scheduled procedures. Everything went perfectly well, even better than perfect, as if Hyabusa2 were reading our minds." The asteroid probe is the first to collect subsurface material from an asteroid.
Ryugu is a 900m diameter asteroid some 180 million miles ( 290ml km ) from Earth. The probe gets its name from an undersea dragon's palace in a Japanese folktale.

[Brian]

A great achievement.

I wonder if they will find Indium?

[brian livesey]

It's a Japanese probe, so they might find "Zenium" .

[Brian]