Japan's Hayabusa-2 begins journey home carrying samples of asteroid

Launched in December 2014, Japan's Hayabusa-2 probe on Wednesday finally departed from a faraway asteroid named Ryugu and begun its yearlong journey back to Earth. The probe, which will take about five days to exit the sphere of Ryugu's gravitational influence and may return to Earth in late 2020, is carrying with it samples of the asteroid. Japan's space agency, Jaxa, said the collected samples could shed light on the origins of the Solar System.