APOD: Capsule Returns from Asteroid Ryugu (2020 Dec 14)

[APOD Robot]

Capsule Returns from Asteroid Ryugu

Explanation: The streak across the sky is a capsule returning from an [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids- ... /overview/" >asteroid</a>. It returned earlier this month from the near-Earth asteroid <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu]162173 Ryugu[/url] carrying small rocks and dust from its surface. The canister was released by its mothership, Japan's Hayabusa2, a mission that visited Ryugu in 2018, harvested a surface sample in 2019, and zoomed back past Earth. The jettisoned return capsule deployed a parachute and landed in rural Australia. A similar mission, NASA's OSIRIS- REx, recently captured rocks and dust from a similar asteroid, Bennu, and is scheduled to return its surface sample to Earth in 2023. Analyses of compounds from these asteroids holds promise to give humanity new insights about the early Solar System and new clues about how water and organic matter came to be on Earth.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[bhansen88]

What is that in the picture at the end of the video? (bottom left)

[Sa Ji Tario]

And technical successes are being added with the ballistics of the probes. With variable results we were amazed by the probes sent to the passage of Halley's Comet and they were later improved with refined techniques, achieving other branches of communication such as the one I am using at the moment.
I am interested to know if the samples are with sufficient protection at the atmospheric re-entry temperature and the air pollution capsule tightness, I understand anyway that it is an unfounded fear but ... Murphy goes round.-

[orin stepanek]

162173_Ryugu.jpg (23.12 KiB) Viewed 5395 times

Tiny little asteroid; part of you comes down to Earth!
Hope you aren't infected with some type of virus!

[Chris Peterson]

And technical successes are being added with the ballistics of the probes. With variable results we were amazed by the probes sent to the passage of Halley's Comet and they were later improved with refined techniques, achieving other branches of communication such as the one I am using at the moment.
I am interested to know if the samples are with sufficient protection at the atmospheric re-entry temperature and the air pollution capsule tightness, I understand anyway that it is an unfounded fear but ... Murphy goes round.-

Just as the interior of meteorites is not heated up during their brief hypersonic passage through the atmosphere, neither is the interior of this capsule. Ablation of the heat shield very efficiently carries away the heat created by the compression of air in front of the capsule, and the few seconds it is hot is nowhere near long enough for the contents to heat up significantly. It's possible the contents even arrive a bit colder than they were while in space.

[jimbo48]

What is that in the picture at the end of the video? (bottom left)

Is the lights/object at the bottom left at the end of the video might be associated with the curvature of the earth in the event the video was taken from a high altitude aircraft or even the space station. Does anyone know for sure?

[mannyp]

The lights/object at the bottom left look like buildings and lights on the ground. The video looks like it was taken at ground level with a hand held camera - look at the motion of the camera tracking the capsule.

[johnnydeep]

The lights/object at the bottom left look like buildings and lights on the ground. The video looks like it was taken at ground level with a hand held camera - look at the motion of the camera tracking the capsule.

I think i agree, but it's hard to say for sure. The first link in the description doesn't give us much additional info:

Capture time: December 6, 2020 at around 02:29 JST.
Filming location: Near Coober Pedy, Australia
Credit: JAXA

[neufer]

Hoteiosho: Japanese "Santa Claus"

---

Santa Claus streaking across 1958 weather radar screen

---

<<"Santa tracking" websites raise interest in space technology and exploration, serve to educate children in geography and encourage them to take an interest in science.>>

[alter-ego]

The lights/object at the bottom left look like buildings and lights on the ground. The video looks like it was taken at ground level with a hand held camera - look at the motion of the camera tracking the capsule.

I think i agree, but it's hard to say for sure. The first link in the description doesn't give us much additional info:

Capture time: December 6, 2020 at around 02:29 JST.
Filming location: Near Coober Pedy, Australia
Credit: JAXA

That must be the case. The last two stars the capsule passes between are Rigel Kentaurus and Hader. Their orientation and altitude wrt to the lit region matches well with that of the local horizon at that time.

[neufer]

https://www.techspot.com/news/92712-sci ... ryugu.html