In June 2018, Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission reached asteroid 162173 Ryugu. It studied the asteroid for about 15 months, ...

Microscope image of one of the small fragments of asteroid 162173 Ryugu studied by scientists at the Advanced Photon Source. This fragment is roughly 400 microns in diameter, or about the width of ...

Credit: ISAS/JAXA. In June 2018, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission reached asteroid 162173 Ryugu. It studied the asteroid for about 15 months, deploying small rovers and a lander, before gathering a ...

Reference: “Evidence from 162173 Ryugu for the influence of freeze-thaw on the hydration of asteroids” by Matthew J. Genge, Natasha V. Almeida, Matthias van Ginneken, Lewis Pinault, Penelope J.

The return of these extraterrestrial samples to Earth in 2020 opened the door to new hypotheses. These grains taken from Ryugu, an asteroid located beyond Jupiter, contain crucial elements for the ...

What can dust grains that were returned to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu teach scientists about the early solar system? This is what a recent study published in AGU Advances hopes to address as an ...

Thanks to asteroid Ryugu, now we know. The asteroid is a peculiar one – maybe even an extinct comet. It was visited by the Japanese mission Hayabusa-2, which collected samples from the surface ...