Scientists have calculated what would happen if the asteroid Ryugu struck our planet. Predicting the result of such a collision was made possible thanks to the analysis of samples returned to Earth by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft Hayabusa2.
Presenting the results of the calculations at the 8th Planetary Defence Conference in Vienna, Austria on Monday, April 4, JAXA Department of Solar System Sciences professor Satoshi Tanaka emphasized the importance of performing estimates like this on planetary defense efforts even for asteroids like Ryugu which currently present no impact risk.
