Bits of asteroid Ryugu are among 'most primordial' materials ever examined
By Nicoletta Lanese published about 6 hours ago
The asteroid may hold secrets of how the solar system came to be.
These bits of rock and dust were gathered from the C-type asteroid Ryugu by the spacecraft Hayabusa2. (Image credit: Yada, et al.; Nature Astronomy)
Tiny particles of rock gathered from the asteroid Ryugu are some of the most primordial bits of material ever examined on Earth and could give us a glimpse into the origins of the solar system.
Asteroid 162173 Ryugu measures about 2,953 feet (900 meters) in diameter and orbits the sun between Earth and Mars, occasionally crossing Earth's orbit, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. The carbonaceous, or C-type, asteroid spins like a top as it hurtles through space, and like other C-type asteroids, Ryugu likely contains material from the nebula (giant cloud of dust and gas) that gave birth to the sun and its planets billions of years ago, scientists think.
In 2019, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 collected samples from the surface of Ryugu, and on Dec. 6, 2020, those samples were successfully transported to Earth in an airtight container tucked inside the reentry capsule. Now, in two new papers published Monday (Dec. 20) in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists present results from the initial analysis of these remarkable bits of space rock.
Tiny particles of rock gathered from the asteroid Ryugu are some of the most primordial bits of material ever examined on Earth and could give us a glimpse into the origins of the solar system.
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