If You Ever Wanted to See Photos From the Surface of an Asteroid, Now's Your Chance

^{Image Credit: ArisSu via iStock}

In case you didn't know, Japan's space agency JAXA launched to space rovers into space a while back with the express purpose of landing them on an asteroid.

Well, the rovers made it to their destination - some 174 million miles away from Earth - and the little rovers are now beaming back images from their target, 162173 Ryugu.

【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】
Heeeeeeere weeeeee cooooome!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Ppcjr40SgG
— 小惑星探査機「はやぶさ２」 (@haya2_jaxa) September 21, 2018

The asteroid is considered a potentially hazardous near-Earth object, meaning its orbit brings it quite close to Earth, and in the event of an impact, it could cause significant damage.

このダイナミックな写真は、2018年9月22日、11:44(日本時間）頃にRover-1Aが撮影したものです。リュウグウ表面において移動中（ホップ中）に撮影されました。左側半分がリュウグウの表面で、右側の白い部分は太陽光によるものです。
（はやぶさ２プロジェクト） pic.twitter.com/feuyrZuv9s
— 小惑星探査機「はやぶさ２」 (@haya2_jaxa) September 22, 2018

At this point, the Minerva-II Rovers are simply hanging out, taking photos, and exploring their new home.

Later this year, though, JAXA plans to launch a larger rover to join its smaller siblings on the asteroid.

こちらは、2018年9月21日、13:07(日本時間）頃にRover-1Bが撮影した写真です。探査機から分離直後に撮影されたもので、右下にリュウグウ表面が映っています。左上の薄くモヤがかかっている部分は撮影時の太陽光の写り込みによるものです。1Bは分離時に回転速度が遅かったようであまりぶれていません。 pic.twitter.com/ghcT6WuhUv
— 小惑星探査機「はやぶさ２」 (@haya2_jaxa) September 22, 2018

JAXA is also planning to detonate an explosion on the asteroid's surface, which they hope will leave a crater behind.

The purpose of doing so is so that the rovers can then collect samples to determine the makeup of the asteroid.

It's exciting stuff to see the images like this for the first time.

It's also quite impressive that JAXA pulled off landing the rovers on the asteroid in the first place!