- 3694 - ASTEROID - Ryugu. Situated 300,000,000 kilometers from Earth this asteroid circles the sun every 16 months. It has been described as little more than an assemblage of gravel, likely made from the debris of several other asteroids.
--------------------- 3694 - ASTEROID - Ryugu.
- In December 2014, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the spacecraft “Hayabusa2” to the asteroid “162173 Ryugu“. In December 2020, the sample-return capsule successfully landed safely back on Earth with pristine pieces of Ryugu that it had collected. Researchers have determined that one specific particle on the asteroid Ryugu can shed light on the unaltered initial materials from its parent body.
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- Ryugu is an ancient fragment of a larger asteroid that formed very early in solar system history, shortly after the birth of the sun. Samples from this asteroid present a unique opportunity to determine not only the material the solar system formed from, but also how the solar system evolved.
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- The solar system formed from a large cloud of swirling gas and dust made by previous generations of stars. This "stardust" is nanometer to micrometer sized particles that are incorporated into planetary bodies, like Ryugu, when they form.
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- Researchers found that one particle differs mineralogically from other Ryugu particles because it contains a small amount 0.5 volume % of anhydrous silicates. Other particles studied to date contained more phyllosilicate and carbonate minerals, suggesting that Ryugu went through an extensive aqueous alteration on its parent body, similar to the rare mineralogically altered, but chemical primitive CI chondrites which is a group of rare stony meteorites.
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- They found that some of its dust grains are older than the solar system.
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- The Hayabusa-2 space probe began its mission back in 2014 as it was launched into space aboard a H-IIA 202 rocket. It rendezvoused with the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu four years later. After circling the asteroid for two years, it descended to its surface and grabbed a sample of its surface dust. It then blasted off and made its way back to Earth.
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- Ryugu is situated 300,000,000 kilometers from Earth and circles the sun every 16 months. It has been described as little more than an assemblage of gravel, likely made from the debris of several other asteroids. It likely formed in the outer part of the solar system and has been creeping inward since. Its dust hints at the possibility of Earth's water coming from a similar asteroid.
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- Since the sample of dust collected by the probe returned to Earth, parts of it have been passed around the world to different researchers eager to test it in different ways. In this new effort, the researchers looked to determine its age. They note that different kinds of grains in asteroids such as Ryugu originated from different types of stars and stellar processes. The age of the grains in their dust can be identified and dated by their isotopic signatures.
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- Researchers compared these samples to grains found in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites that have been found on Earth. Just 5% of such meteorites have been found to harbor grains that predate the creation of the solar system, some of which have been dated to 7 billion years ago.
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- The dust sample held grains identical to all of the others that have been seen in meteorites, showing that it too predates the solar system. They note that one in particular, a silicate that is known to be very easily destroyed, must have been protected somehow from damage by the sun.
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September 25, 2022 ASTEROID - Ryugu 3694
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