Author: Mike Wall / Source: Space.com
(Image: © JAXA, Kobe University, Chiba Institute of Technology, The University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kochi University, Aichi Toho University, The University of Aizu, and Tokyo University of Science)
Asteroids have pummeled Earth for billions of years, and now Earth has finally struck back.
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft slammed a copper cannonball into the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) asteroid Ryugu last night (April 4), in an effort to blast out a crater that the probe can study in detail over the coming weeks and months.
The “Small Carry-on Impactor” (SCI) operation began at around 10 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT on April 5) when the 4.4-lb. (2 kilograms) copper plate deployed from the Hayabusa2 mothership. About 40 minutes later, explosives behind the plate detonated, sending the projectile hurtling toward Ryugu at 4,500 mph (7,240 km/h).
The shot hit its target — and Hayabusa2 even got a picture of the impact.
“After the start of the operation, the camera (DCAM3) [that] separated from Hayabusa2 captured an image that shows ejection from Ryugu’s surface, which implies that…
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