The Hayabusa2 spacecraft of Japan is nearing the earth after a yearlong journey from asteroid Ryugu. The asteroid is located at a distance of about 300 million kilometres from the Earth. The spacecraft is to reach the earth in Southern Australia on December 6, 2020 carrying precious samples from the asteroid.
The entire operation is being held by JAXA, Japanese Aerospace exploration agency. According to the agency the capsule that is protected by a heat shield will turn into a fire ball at its 200 kilometre from the earth surface. The parachute of the capsule will open at about 10 kilometres.
In February 2019, the spacecraft collected surface dust samples from the asteroid Ryugu. Later in July 2019, the spacecraft collected underground samples from the asteroid. This is the first time in the history of world space underground samples are collected from an asteroid.
The spacecraft took three and half years to reach the asteroid to go. However, the return journey was much shorter due to its location relative to the earth.
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