Hayabusa-2 is hoping to bring back between 10 to 100 milligrams for study. However, it’s not clear exactly how much sample material the spacecraft scooped up. JAXA doesn’t have a way to ...

Earlier this month, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) succeeded in bringing a sample of asteroid Ryugu back to Earth, in a remarkable feat which is only the second time an asteroid sample has even ...

Hayabusa's findings. In November 2010, JAXA said it had collected 1,500 grains that "were identified as rocky particles"; most of them were thought to come from "extraterrestrial origin" (meaning ...

JAXA is finally ready to collect a sample of the asteroid Ryugu. And you can watch it happen live.

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has successfully pulled off a second touchdown on the surface of the distant asteroid Ryugu. The risky dive saw the probe collect material that had been exposed ...

June 27 (UPI) --Japan's spacecraft Hayabusa-2 has reached its target destination, the asteroid Ryugu. After a 3.5-year journey, the probe is now within 20 kilometers, or 12.5 miles, of the distant ...

JAXA launched Hayabusa-2 back in 2014 as a follow-up to the original Hayabusa mission that landed on the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. Like its predecessor, ...

JAXA Hayabusa 2 Ryugu landing artists conception JAXA. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe recently touched down on asteroid Ryugu and collected a sample from this rock orbiting between Earth and Mars.

Now, as JAXA prepares for the most daring maneuver of the entire mission — a touchdown that will allow Hayabusa-2 to snag a sample of the rock’s surface before heading back to Earth — the ...

JAXA describes the second sample as including rocks as large as nearly half an inch, and they’re very hard. Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid probe mission took a long, long time.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed Tuesday that the particles found inside a capsule that the Hayabusa space probe brought back in June were indeed pieces of Itokawa. It's a big deal ...