Video: Marc Buie, New Horizons Occultation Team Lead (members only)

Japanese space agency officials said Tuesday they found a “large number” of pitch black rock and dust particles after opening a capsule returned to Earth earlier this month by the Hayabusa 2 mission, giving eager scientists their first significant specimens ever brought back from an asteroid.

Japan’s robotic Hayabusa 2 spacecraft arrived Wednesday at asteroid Ryugu, a diamond-shaped object more than a half-mile wide where the probe will attempt a brief landing later this year to collect rock specimens for return to Earth.

SpaceX has filed a protest challenging a nearly $150 million NASA contract awarded to United Launch Alliance last month to send a robotic asteroid probe into space.