A Japanese spacecraft is coming back to Earth with samples from a nearby asteroid cnn.com

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 4 years, 5 months ago in Science & Technology

(CNN) For a little over a year, a tiny unmanned Japanese spacecraft has been sampling the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, capturing images, blasting a little crater in it, and firing a "bullet" into its exterior to dislodge particles.
Now, after traveling about 180 million miles, Hayabusa2 has begun its yearlong journey back to Earth with valuable data and soil samples in tow.
The little spacecraft seems to already be experiencing twinges of nostalgia.
Ryugu is a diamond-shaped asteroid just under 3,000 ft wide that orbits tens of millions of miles away from Earth.
Hayabusa2's venture, which began in 2014, is the world's first sample return mission to a C-type asteroid.