The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 returned to Earth in December 2020 bearing soil samples collected from a nearby asteroid, 162173 Ryugu. Those samples were divided between six scientific teams ...

Asteroid 162173 Ryugu (Image credit: ISAS/JAXA, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons) The pitch-dark asteroid bits reflect only about 2% to 3% of the light that hits them, the team found.

The successor to this mission, called Hayabusa2, was completed near the end of 2020, bringing back material from Asteroid 162173 "Ryugu," along with a collection of images and data gathered ...

The mystery surrounding the origins of the asteroid Ryugu may have been solved with a model that explains its weird shape, loose rubble pile structure, and abundance of organic molecules.

See multiple views from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft's touching down on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/U. Tokyo/Kochi ...

This time last year, scientists got their hands on some very rare space rocks — specifically, 5.4 grams of material from the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, which was returned to Earth via the ...

Hayabusa2 returned from Ryugu with just a teaspoon’s worth of material, but it could be enough to study the entire asteroid.

The Hayabusa2 mission has recently uncovered information on the physical characteristics of the asteroid “Ryugu,” which, according to the conventional theory, forms from a collision between ...

Samples taken from the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu continue to provide scientists with important insights, this time about the potential beginnings of life on our planet.

Planetary Scientists Find Unexpected Mineral In 496-Million-Ton Asteroid — And It Defies Ryugu's Origin Story The latest ...

Organic matter found in samples of asteroid Ryugu suggests that ancient comets may be responsible for bringing the 'seeds of life' to Earth.

Pyrrhotites in asteroid 162173 Ryugu: Records of the initial changes on their surfaces with aqueous alteration Journal: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta Published: 2024-08-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.gca ...