[Please accept my apologies for the late posting to the site. I *thought* I had it queued up with plenty of time, but somehow messed up somewhere. --martyb]
The Japanese Space Agency's Hyabusa-2 probe is about to touch down on the asteroid 162173 Ryuga.
A live stream of the event will be available here starting at 4:45pm ET
The asteroid-circling spacecraft won't land so much as delicately brush the surface of Ryugu. During the late stages of descent, the probe will fire a tantalum pellet at the asteroid surface. The 650-mile-per-hour collision will create a plume of dust and debris that Hayabusa-2 will attempt to scoop up with an instrument dubbed the Sampler Horn.
This is equivalent to a bit over 6x the speed of the fastest slapshot ever recorded in an Ice Hockey Rink.
This will be the first of three passes to collect rock and dust samples from the asteroid. Samples will be returned to Earth in 2020.
Also at phys.org and sciencenews.org
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Thursday February 21 2019, @10:55PM
Nice message from him a few minutes ago.
Here's a link to an article on what Brian May is contributing, including one of the stereo images of the asteroid.
https://www.space.com/41119-brian-may-asteroid-ryugu-hayabusa2-image.html [space.com]
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(Score: 4, Informative) by martyb on Thursday February 21 2019, @11:11PM
Just received word that some telemetry has been returned and, apparently, it is good. Oh, confirmation that the projectile WAS fired.
Still waiting for more info on whether or not they were successful with material collection.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 22 2019, @12:08AM (3 children)
!=
I'm not sure anything can be "delicately brushed" at those speeds. Sure, it's a delicate operation, but there won't be anything delicate about the interactions between the two objects.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 22 2019, @12:18AM (1 child)
Hmm..., ok, that's just the projectile. Did this thing actually land? In which case, I assume the approach speed was significantly less than 650mph. So, if it's touching down / landing, it's not so much of a skim / slapshot, then. One picture even shows it as supposed to be landing.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Friday February 22 2019, @12:36AM
So technically yes - all the risk of landing without actually getting to hang out and raid the liquor cabinet.
And they are going to do it two more times :)
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(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Friday February 22 2019, @12:31AM
There's a tantalum pellet that is fired at 650mph to blow away the solar wind weathered surface and kick up particles from underneath that are more representative of the early solar system, the lander itself floated down very slowly and over the course of an hour covering somewhere around 160m (if I remember right)
There's a press conference coming up on it that will be livestreamed also at "11am this morning" - presumably that means 9pm ET
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(Score: 3, Informative) by deadstick on Friday February 22 2019, @12:23AM
Hayabusa means "falcon". They had a WW2 fighter by that name, as well as the present-day motorcycle.
(Score: 1) by zzarko on Friday February 22 2019, @05:14PM (1 child)
"650-mile-per-hour" is a very vague statement, but luckily there is "a bit over 6x the speed of the fastest slapshot ever recorded in an Ice Hockey Rink" which is much more understandable. Could someone please tell me how many football fields is the surface of Ryugu (or maybe in similarly understandable ice hockey fields)?
C64 BASIC: 1 a=rnd(-52028):fori=1to8:a=rnd(1):next:fori=1to5:?chr$(rnd(1)*26+65);:next
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 22 2019, @05:50PM
... because Japan is a metric country:
Soccer Fields are measured in meters.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 22 2019, @05:48PM
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]