In the dusty desert town of Woomera, in the South Australian desert, scientists are getting ready. On 6 December 2020, after six years in space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft will finally return to Earth.

It carries with it a cargo unbelievably rare, precious, and hard-won — at least 100 milligrams of material collected from the surface of asteroid Ryugu. It will drop the capsule containing the sample to Earth, the spacecraft itself continuing on to visit more asteroid targets.

Hayabusa2’s return will mark a milestone in a remarkable feat of space science, a total journey of around 5.24 billion kilometres (almost 3.3 billion miles). Asteroid Ryugu — formerly known as 1999 JU3 — is on an elliptical orbit that carries it just inside Earth’s orbital path around the Sun, and out almost as far as Mars’ orbit.

Is this a case where money falls from the heavens!

This may start a craze where people chase after meteors! 😃

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A rock from outer space landing on your property and resulting in millions in your bank account sounds more unlikely that a lottery win, but one lucky man has found himself in the fortunate position.

Josua Hutagalung is a 33-year-old coffin maker based in Kolang, North Sumatra, Indonesia, who has become a millionaire overnight. A meteorite came crashing into his garden at the beginning of August and he later had to dig it out as it had been lodged in 5.9 inches.

Hutagalung was clearly lucky that his house wasn’t hit by this incredibly fast-moving rock. However, his luck continued when the meteorite was valued.