Japan (Very Carefully) Drops Plastic Explosives Onto An Asteroid
The device was detonated as part of a mission to better understand the origins of planets.
Early Friday morning, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft detonated an explosive device over a small asteroid. The goal was to create a fresh crater that will later be studied by the spacecraft.
Researchers watched from mission control in. The device consisted of a copper disk packed with HMX high-explosive. Once the mothership had safely moved out of the line of fire, the impactor apparently detonated, firing the disk into the side of the asteroid. A camera released by Hayabusa2 , which sent a stream of ejecta into space.
