Two space rovers become first to land on asteroid in outer space

Two space rovers have become the first to land successfully on an asteroid hurtling through outer space.

The pair of exploring robots, designed to traverse the interstellar object and report back information, landed on the surface of Ryugu after being released from a spacecraft on September 21.

This main ship, Hayabusa2, was launched in December 2014 and dropped the two rovers, 1a and 1b which make up MINERVAII-1.

It dropped them from a height of around 20km, 12.5 miles, above the asteroid.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, stated MINERVA-II1 is “the world’s first man-made object to explore movement on an asteroid surface”.

It has shared images from the trip showing the machines’ descent to the rock and a picture from after the landing.

Two images captured the space between the ship and the celestial body immediately after they separated from Hayabusa 2.

A third photograph taken by rover 1A while it was "mid hop" and captured a close look at the asteroid surface.

Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, said: "I cannot find words to express how happy I am that we were able to realise mobile exploration on the surface of an asteroid.

"I am proud that Hayabusa2 was able to contribute to the creation of this technology for a new method of space exploration by surface movement on small bodies."

JAXA has said the rovers will continue to explore the surface of the asteroid and it is "planning to acquire more data for analysis".

Takashi Kubota, a spokesperson for the Hayabusa2 project, said: "The image taken by MINERVA-II1 during a hop allowed me to relax as a dream of many years came true. I felt awed by what we had achieved in Japan.

"This is just a real charm of deep space exploration."

The two rovers are hexagonal in shape with a diameter of 18cm, around seven inches, and are 7cm in height, just shy of three inches.

They each weigh 1.1kg, or around 2.4lbs.