Japan's Hayabusa2 probe successfully touches down on asteroid

Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe successfully touched down Friday on a distant asteroid, the nation's space agency said, beginning the next phase of a mission aimed at discovering new insights into the origin of life and the evolution of the solar system.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it received a signal from Hayabusa2 showing it touched down on the Ryugu asteroid located 340 million kilometers from Earth, although the agency will need a few days before it can confirm whether the first surface samples were collected as planned.The spacecraft is designed to fire a small projectile…READ FULL ARTICLE