Something minimal, irrelevant without context, like the tapping of a marble inside a metal container. It is nothing more than that. But it is a lot, because it is the sound, the noise, the verification that the mission has worked and that we have the first samples of an asteroid, here on Earth.
You can listen to it below.
Hayabusa 2
The first samples of materials extracted from beneath the surface of an asteroid, the asteroid Ryugu, dated to 4.6 billion years ago, landed in Australia on December 6.
Japanese scientists Hayabusa mission 2 They have released a video of a maneuver to immediately verify what was contained in the sample capsule received. To confirm without opening it that the capsule had samples inside, the scientists turned the capsule upside down and got the response with the following sound:
While at the Quick Look Facility in Australia (before opening the capsule back in Japan), the team tried to hear if a sample had been collected using a high-performance microphone as they turned the capsule over. This is the sound of Ryugu! pic.twitter.com/gfaTk94QmH
— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) January 28, 2021
The capsule contained in total 5.4 grams of samples. On February 22, 2019, the probe successfully touched the asteroid after a controlled descent to take samples, obtaining this amount of regolith. The tweet said:
While at the Quick Look Facility in Australia (before opening the capsule in Japan), the team tried to listen to whether a sample had been collected with a high-performance microphone as they turned the capsule upside down. This is the sound of Ryugu!
Its study allows us to better understand how the Solar System was formed and consequently our planet and us. That sound was the clue that we were on the right track..
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The news
This is the first sound of the first samples of materials extracted from beneath the surface of an asteroid
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.