Mr Tsuda called the successful return of the asteroid soil and gas samples "a major scientific milestone." The pan-shaped capsule, 40 centimeters in diameter, was dropped by Hayabusa2 from space to a predetermined spot in a sparsely populated Australian desert on December 6 at the end of its six-year round trip to Ryugu, more than 300 million kilometersfrom Earth. The capsule arrived in Japan last Tuesday for research that scientists hope will provide insight into the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The capsule landed in Australia earlier this month.(Twitter) Images of the Hayabusa2 (Twitter) Hirotaka Sawada, a JAXA scientist, was the first to look inside the capsule's sample-catcher.