Japanese spacecraft detonates 'bomb' on asteroid in attempt to discover origins of the solar system

A photo received from Hayabusa2 spacecraft shows stone and sand after bullets were fired into the surface to collect data by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft after landing on the asteroid Ryugu (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 has detonated an explosive on the surface of an asteroid it is exploring.

It is the first time it has blasted the surface with the hope being the crater created will pave the way for the collection of samples that will shed light on the origin of the solar system.

The Friday mission has been the riskiest yet for Hayabusa2 because it had to dodge flying shards from the blast.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Hayabusa2 dropped a small explosive box which sent a copper ball the size of a baseball slamming into the asteroid and the spacecraft remained intact.

"The mission was a success," JAXA project manager Yuichi Tsuda said. "It is highly likely to have made a crater."

A photo taken by the ONC-W1 camera 30 metres above the Ryugu asteroid and received from the Hayabusa2 probe shows the shadow of the Japanese spacecraft. (AFP/Getty Images)

JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2, which was moved to the other side of the asteroid, back to the site to collect samples of material from the new crater that is unexposed to the sun or space rays.

Scientists hope the samples will help them understand the history of the solar system, since asteroids are leftover material from its formation.

No such samples have ever been recovered. In a 2005 "deep impact" mission to a comet, NASA observed fragments after blasting the surface but did not collect them.

This image shows an explosive dropped from Hayabusa2 spacecraft to make a crater on the asteroid Ryugu. (AP)

Last month, JAXA announced that a group of scientists participating in the Hayabusa2 mission had detected hydroxyl-bearing minerals on the asteroid by analyzing near-infrared spectrometer readings by the spacecraft.

It said that could help explain where the Earth's water came from. The results were published in the online edition of Science magazine.

"So far, Hayabusa2 has done everything as planned, and we are delighted," mission leader Makoto Yoshikawa said on Friday.

Project manager Yuichi Tsuda, center, of The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. (AP)

"But we still have more missions to achieve and it's too early for us to celebrate."

Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a small level area on the boulder-strewn asteroid in February, when it also collected some surface dust and small debris.

The craft is scheduled to leave the asteroid at the end of 2019 and bring the surface fragments and underground samples back to Earth in late 2020.

The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth.