There’s been a rain of asteroids of late, at least within the pages of the journal Science. Editors devoted an entire special issue to lab analyses of samples brought back to Earth by the daring Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu. Although the volume of material returned was a mere 5.4 grams, the information gleaned thus far could be said to equal tons of gold! These 5.4 grams of rocky particles and dust are allowing scientists to peer 4.656 billion years into the past, to the very earliest stages of our solar system!
While Japan is analyzing samples returned from a known asteroid, China is looking for new ones. It has begun construction of what is being dubbed “the world’s largest radar astronomy array” to track near-Earth asteroids that could pose a threat should their orbits intersect ours. China already has four dishes in place with a goal of 100 dishes in all.