A Japanese spacecraft has touched down on a distant asteroid on a mission to collect material that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system.
Workers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency control centre applauded as a signal sent from space indicated the Hayabusa2 spacecraft had touched down.
— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) February 22, 2019
During the touchdown, Hayabusa2 is programmed to extend a pipe and shoot a pinball-like object into the asteroid to blow up material from beneath the surface.
The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 900 metres (3,000ft) in diameter and 280 million kilometres (170 million miles) from Earth.
