Ryugu asteroid tagged posts

How did the molecular building blocks for life end up on Earth? One long-standing theory is that they could have been delivered by comets. Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge have shown how comets could deposit similar building blocks to other planets in the galaxy.

In order to deliver organic material, comets need to be travelling relatively slowly – at speeds below 15 kilometres per second. At higher speeds, the essential molecules would not survive – the speed and temperature of impact would cause them to break apart.

The most likely place where comets can travel at the right speed are ‘peas in a pod’ systems, where a group of planets orbit closely together...

Our solar system is estimated to be about 4.57 billion years old. Previous analyses of ancient meteorites have shown that minerals were created through chemical reactions with water as far back as 4.5 billion years ago. New findings from the Ryugu asteroid samples indicate that carbonates were forming from water-rock reactions several million years earlier, even closer to the solar system’s beginnings.

Mineral samples collected from the Ryugu asteroid by the Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft are helping UCLA space scientists and colleagues better understand the chemical composition of our solar system as it existed in its infancy, more than 4.5 billion years ago.

In research recently published in Nature Astronomy, scientists using isotopic ana...

Earlier this month the unmanned explorer, Hayabusa 2, passed by Earth to harness the planet’s gravitational pull in a bid to switch its orbital path to continue toward tiny Ryugu asteroid Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-japan-asteroid-probe-orbit-space.html#jCp

It is is on its way to rendezvousing with a far away asteroid, in a quest to study the origin of the solar system, authorities said Monday. Earlier this month the unmanned explorer, Hayabusa 2, passed by Earth to harness the planet’s gravitational pull in a bid to switch its orbital path to continue toward tiny Ryugu asteroid.

“The Hayabusa 2… entered the target orbit to travel to the asteroid,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a statement.
Hayabusa 2 was launched a year ago aboard Japan’s main H-IIA rock...