First analyses of Ryugu asteroid sample published
Researchers have published the first analyses of samples plucked from asteroid 162173 Ryugu by Japan’s spacecraft Hayabusa2, revealing, for the first time, the physical properties and composition of a carbonaceous asteroid.
The 5.4g of asteroid sample collected from two surface locations on asteroid Ryugu landed in the South Australian outback a year ago before being shipped to Japan for investigation.
Some of the space pebbles went to NASA, but the bulk remained with Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA and its scientists.
Astro-boffins have had high hopes for these samples, as they’ve never before had their hand on a dark and carbon-rich asteroid, or C-type, like Ryugu.
Studies of the samples physical properties revealed the sample resembled the spacecraft’s on-site images of the flying space-rock and the collected material was representative of the asteroid as a whole.
Rich in water and organic matter, the ultra-dark material was a mix of elements rarely seen in meteorites that make it down to Earth, despite these C-type asteroids being the most common in the Solar System. The texture was also unusual, as it was uniformly fine and did not include the round chunky bits of melted minerals known as “chondrules”.
Those characteristic suggest that Ryugu’s parent body was a CI chondrite, a rare meterorite with a composition close to the stuff found in the Sun’s outer shell.
“This demonstrates that Hayabusa2 has returned a sample whose parent body is definitively known and which will give us information about the early stages of the Solar System,” said the authors of one of two papers published on Ryugu Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The authors made that assertion as the composition of CI chondrites are similar to the stuff theorized to have made up much of the Solar System when it was just formed.
The results are exciting for supporters of the panspermia theory, which proposes that the building blocks for life are transported across the cosmos via comet or asteroid. C-type asteroids, in particular are thought to have seeded a young Earth with water and other essential life-supporting materials.
Indeed, scientists found organic molecules on the first comet humanity intercepted, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. There’s no reason known why chunks of comets housing organic materials wouldn’t survive an impact and spread their cargo far and wide.
Of course, beyond the philosophical questions about humanity’s maker, there’s also a very real reason to study asteroids and that is that it would be really great to avoid having one hit the Earth and end all the fun and games here.
Scientists continue to dig in to the Ryugu samples and hope follow up studies might tell us how the Solar System evolved. Comparisons of Ryugu to other asteroids are planned, to test for variations.
In addition to the dust and pebbles, the mission also produced what JAXA referred to as “the world’s first sample return of a material in the gas state from deep space,” so we have more to look forward to than just solid matter.
See more here: theregister.com
Header image: Wikipedia
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Opus
| #
The results are exciting for supporters of the panspermia theory, which proposes that the building blocks for life are transported across the cosmos via comet or asteroid.
No. Panspermia is the hypothesis that life itself, not the building blocks, of life are transported by comets and asteroids.
Reply
Andy
| #
While I’m not convinced either way, the theory of panspermia is certainly an interesting one, and should be discussed.
Reply
Robert Beatty
| #
“Rich in water and organic matter”
Sounds to me like the product from a diamond pipe launched into orbit through kinetic pipe activity. See page 33, https://bosmin.com/PSL/PlanetsSatellitesLandforms.pdf
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi Robert,
Was not aware of this scholarship. And I have no doubt that whatever your write qualifies as TRUE SCHOLARSHIP whether it is correct or wrong. And your writing skills cannot be bested.
I will read each word of this effort during the next few days while I ignore football games. A quick read to get an overview of your ideas. Then I will begin to ponder what you have written.
However, as I have pondered what we know about the Earth, I have a question for you and anyone else. Where did the Earth’s about 80% atmosphere come from? I did a ‘find’ search of your book and only found that Mars had a less than 2% nitrogen atmosphere.
Merry Christmas, Jerry
Reply
Robert Beatty
| #
Hi Jerry,
Sorry to interrupt your football viewing schedule. We will be concentrating on the next ashes (cricket) game where the poms are strap hanging just now.
All will be revealed regarding the atmosphere in the PSL read.
Trust you are having a Merry and scholarly Christmas.
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi Robert,
Hope I do not disturb your cricket match viewing, but my abilities have significantly faded during the past year as I have trouble keeping my fingers on the ‘home keys’. So I have an urgent impulse to share what I have read that it seems that others may not have read. We should not ignore the efforts of these ‘ancient’ scholars.
And I do not know if you are aware that, In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic behavior of nature from the behavior of such ensembles. Given your wide range of interests it is hard to imagine that you are unaware of it; however I cannot not remember that you have referred to it.
Two important words to me are probability and coincidence. Coincidence being an event that is very Improbable. Briefly, when in Sidney my wife and I had one of our frequent disagreement so I went into a large library to read (which I am sure you know that I enjoy doing). And I discovered an 1840 biography titled: THE MARTYRS OF SCIENCE.
Because I do not like to assume what others know or don’t know; I ask: Do you know who these proposed martyrs of science might be and how many martyrs, that this scholar considered, there were?
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply