Scientists in Japan now believe that liquid water once flowed through the heart of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, after researchers detected something unusual in the samples of the space rock that were returned to our planet five years ago. The surprising findings also have potential implications for how Earth acquired its own water, the researchers say. 162173 Ryugu is a …
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Asteroid Ryugu is proving to be one of the most scientifically valuable time capsules in the solar system. A recent study of microscopic grains collected from Ryugu by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft found the tiny space rock harbors minerals that formed long before Earth itself — minerals that have been preserved in pristine condition for billions of years. Using cutting-edge X-ray …
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When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The asteroids Bennu and Ryugu may both be fragments of the massive “parent” rock Polana (shown breaking apart here in a NASA illustration), new James Webb telescope data hints. | Credit: NASA Two of the solar system’s most famous asteroids, Bennu and Ryugu, …
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Two of the solar system‘s most famous asteroids, Bennu and Ryugu, may be fragments of a single massive “parent” asteroid that was smashed to pieces billions of years ago, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals. If true, the sibling space rocks — which have both recently been visited by spacecraft that successfully returned samples of them …
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