Japan successfully landed two small rovers on an asteroid whizzing through space and the photos the robots sent back are, well, out of this world.
On Friday, the Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully deployed two tiny rovers from its unmanned space probe Hayabusa2 that touched down on Ryugu asteroid. The spacecraft arrived near the asteroid, about 280 million kilometers from Earth, in June and has been orbiting the space rock since.
On Saturday, the space agency shared images the rovers beamed back to Earth showing the robots’ approach and surface landing.
JAXA explained some of the images were blurred “because the rover is spinning” as it approaches the asteroid.
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The rovers move around on the surface of the space rock by “hopping” up to about 15 metres at a time. Weak gravity on the asteroid makes it difficult for the rovers to roll on the surface.
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“This dynamic photo was captured by Rover-1A on September 22 at around 11:44 JST,” the space agency said of the first surface image. “It was taken on Ryugu’s surface during a hop. The left-half is the surface of Ryugu, while the white region on the right is due to sunlight.”
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield celebrated Japan’s successful rover landing, noting that the first image of the surface had a unique “feel” to it.
“I love how this first image from the lander on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid is so Stanley Kubrickesque,” the former commander of the International Space Station tweeted. “Well done team!”
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