A container containing the capsule separated from the Hayabusa-2 space probe is brought into the facility in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, on Dec 8, 2020. - AFP
TOKYO (Reuters): Samples of an asteroid 300 million miles from Earth arrived in Japan on Tuesday (Dec 8) to applause and smiles, the climax of a six-year odyssey by a space probe pursuing the origins of life.
Named for the peregrine falcon, the Hayabusa2 blasted off for the asteroid Ryugu in December 2014, overcoming an unexpectedly rough landing surface to collect samples of asteroid dust in a capsule.
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