[SCI] April 5 at 11:56 JST. The SCI operation time has passed and we have confirmed there is no problem with the spacecraft during the evacuation operation. — HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) April 5, 2019

To avoid getting hit by flying debris, Hayabusa2 maneuvered itself away from the impact zone, according to the BBC. Japan's Jaxa space agency will now check the probe's camera, deployed to monitor the explosion from a distance of around 1km, to see if it all went to plan. Then Hayabusa2 will once again land on Ryugu -- after successfully touching down on its surface in February when it fired a bullet into the asteroid -- to retrieve more rock and soil samples.

Coming from deeper underground, these latest samples should be more pristine and unspoiled by the harsh environment of space. They could therefore offer more clues about the early period of the solar system. You can check out Jaxa's entire live feed from mission control below.