Japan team says probe carrying asteroid samples collected

This handout photograph taken and released by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Sunday (Dec 6, 2020) shows Hayabusa-2 project members in the mission control room watching over the live streaming about the fireball phase of the re-entry capsule in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture. - In a streak of light across the night sky, samples collected from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth on Dec 6 after being dropped off by Japanese space probe Hayabusa-2. - AFP

TOKYO, Dec 6 (dpa): After a space trip of more than 5 billion kilometres, a capsule released by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa 2, containing the first eagerly awaited samples from below the surface of an asteroid, was retrieved on Sunday after landing in the Australia desert.

"We found the capsule! Together with the parachute! Wow!" read a Sunday tweet from the Japanese space agency Jaxa after a helicopter team found it in the Woomera desert of South Australia.