The Hayabusa2 spacecraft landed in the desert of southern Australia on Friday

It’s only the second time in history that material from an asteroid have been returned to our planet. Scientists will open the spacecraft up to learn more about the asteroids that permeate our solar system.

The landing is the culmination of Japan’s hayabusa2 mission. After launching from Japan in 2014, the hayabusa2 spacecraft spent four years travelling to an asteroid named Ryugu. The vehicle spent a year and a half hanging around the asteroid, mapping the rock’s surface and grabbing samples of material before heading back to earth.

Asteroids have n’t changed much over the last 4.6 billion years. They contain many of the same materials that were present at the solar system’s birth.

Scientists did n’t have a way to measure how much sample hayabusa2 had collected while in space. That exact amount will be revealed when the spacecraft is opened in Japan.

Hayabusa2 used some creative techniques for collecting samples. The spacecraft first tapped the asteroid in February of 2019. When the arm made contact, it shot out a bullet-like projectile that punctured the asteroid.

Hayabusa2 used explosives on Ryugu in July of 2019. The spacecraft then tapped the asteroid’s surface to scoop up rocks. The goal was to collect more pristine rocks from the crater.

After spending the last year traveling to earth, the spacecraft deployed a small capsule late Friday night. The capsule then set on a course for earth, plunging through our planet’s atmosphere this morning. It then deployed a parachute, slowing the vehicle from about 12 kilometers per second, or nearly 27,000 miles per hour.

Team from JAXA went on an extended search in Australia to find the capsule. The vehicle came down in an area that covers 100 square kilometers, or 38 square miles. The capsule was equipped with a radio beacon that helped teams locate where the spacecraft touched down.

In 2023, NASA’s Osiris-REx mission is expected to return the largest sample of material from an asteroid ever collected. hayabusa2 is Japan’s second mission to retrieve samples of an asteroid.