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Scientists have uncovered a tantalising clue to the <keyword id="23694040" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="origins-of-life" source="keywords">origins of life</keyword> on Earth, finding <keyword id="23694037" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="complex-organic-molecules" source="keywords">complex organic molecules</keyword> in a distant <keyword id="22022419" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="interstellar-cloud" source="keywords">interstellar cloud</keyword>.<br /><br />A team of researchers led by <keyword id="19911243" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="MIT" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="MIT" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="MIT">MIT</keyword> has detected <keyword id="23694039" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pyrene" source="keywords">pyrene</keyword>, a large molecule composed of carbon and hydrogen, within the <keyword id="23694038" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Taurus-Molecular-Cloud" source="keywords">Taurus Molecular Cloud</keyword>. This discovery is significant as it suggests that complex organic molecules, the building blocks of life, were present in the early stages of our Solar System.<br /><br />Pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is a relatively large and stable molecule. Its presence in interstellar space challenges the conventional belief that complex molecules cannot survive the harsh conditions of star formation. The detection of pyrene indicates that these molecules can endure and even thrive in the extreme environments of space.<br /><br />The discovery of pyrene is particularly exciting because it aligns with previous findings from the <keyword id="23694042" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid-Ryugu" source="keywords">asteroid Ryugu</keyword>, where significant amounts of pyrene were identified. This suggests that these molecules may have been inherited from the interstellar cloud that preceded our Solar System.<br /><br />While pyrene itself is difficult to detect directly, scientists utilise a tracer molecule called 1-cyanopyrene. By observing the radio emissions of 1-cyanopyrene, researchers were able to infer the presence of pyrene in the Taurus Molecular Cloud.<br /><br />The implications of this discovery are profound. It strengthens the hypothesis that complex organic molecules, essential for the emergence of life, were delivered to Earth through comets, asteroids, or interstellar dust. This cosmic infusion of organic matter may have provided the initial spark for the development of life on our planet.<br /><br />As scientists continue to explore the universe, we may uncover even more complex molecules and gain deeper insights into the origins of life. This latest discovery brings us one step closer to unravelling the mysteries of our cosmic origins and the potential for life elsewhere in the universe.<br />

Seeds of life among the stars: MIT scientists find complex carbon molecules in a distant cloud, pointing to clues to Earth’s beginnings!

<ul><li>A new study by Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe finds that water and organic matter were brought to <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">earth</keyword> by asteroids.</li><li>A team of astronomers from Japan drew the analysis based on samples from the <keyword id="3634650" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ryugu" source="Orion">Ryugu</keyword> asteroid.</li><li>Hayabusa2 left Earth on 2014 and reached its stationary position above Ryugu in June 2018.</li></ul>Water and organic matter was brought to Earth by asteroids, finds Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe.<br />The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy explains the mystery of how the Earth, which consisted almost entirely of molten magma in its initial formation, came to be covered in water, Kyodo News reported.<br />A team of astronomers from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency drew the analysis based on samples from the Ryugu asteroid collected by the Hayabusa2 space probe.<br />"In a broad sense, it is possible that small celestial bodies brought things that led to water and life on Earth," Motoo Ito, a senior researcher of geomaterials science at the <keyword id="14731597" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="japan-agency" source="Orion">Japan Agency</keyword> for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, was quoted as saying.<br />In December 2020, a capsule that had been carried on a six-year mission by Hayabusa2 delivered more than 5.4 grams of surface material to Earth from the Ryugu asteroid, located over 300 million km away.<br />While Ryugu particles displayed a close compositional match to that of Earth's water, there were some slight differences, leading researchers to hypothesise that Earth may have also sourced its water from places other than asteroids, the report said.<br />An analysis of eight particles, totalling approximately 59 milligrams, from the Ryugu asteroid found in almost all of them organic matter and water not in liquid form but a hydroxyl group consisting of one oxygen atom bonded to one hydrogen atom, with a composition similar to that of water contained in cosmic dust and comets.<br />Protected by a "cradle" of phyllosilicates, they were believed to have endured harsh environmental changes after leaving the outer solar system, where water and organic matter are present.<br />Organic areas comprising a matter known as aliphatic hydrocarbon were also found within the relatively coarse-grained phyllosilicates. The surrounding coarse grains, which are more resistant to heat, may have prevented water and the organic matter from being altered by the environment, the report said.<br />Hayabusa2 left Earth in 2014 and reached its stationary position above Ryugu in June 2018 after travelling 3.2 billion km on an elliptical orbit around the Sun for more than three years.<br />The probe touched down on the asteroid twice the following year, collecting the first-ever subsurface samples from an asteroid.<br />Researchers have previously found that Ryugu, born from a parent body formed in the outer solar system, travelled to the inner solar system and that its particles contain amino acids -- organic compounds said to be the "source of life."<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/400-acre-barrens-in-trichy-district-i[%E2%80%A6]-to-turn-into-a-palm-tree-forest/articleshow/93588898.cms">400-acre barrens in Trichy district in Tamil Nadu to turn into a palm tree forest</a><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/human-activities-disrupted-even-the-m[%E2%80%A6]es-in-the-earths-ecosystem-study/articleshow/93590471.cms"><strong>Human activities disrupted even the most resilient species in the Earth's ecosystem: study</strong></a><br />

Earth got its water and organic matter from asteroids, finds Japan's space probe

Using a <keyword id="9428" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rocket" source="Orion">rocket</keyword> to divert an <keyword id="6549794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid" source="Orion">asteroid</keyword> may seem like something from a child's story, but <keyword id="19935155" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nasa" source="keywords">NASA</keyword> achieved exactly that with the <keyword id="348209" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="dart" source="Orion">DART</keyword> mission. Launched in September 2022, DART, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was a groundbreaking experiment. It intentionally collided a spacecraft with the small asteroid <keyword id="20759966" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dimorphos" source="keywords">Dimorphos</keyword>, not to obliterate it, but to subtly alter its trajectory, showcasing our capability to avert potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.<br /><br />Recent research suggests that DART may have done more than just redirect Dimorphos; it might have significantly reshaped the asteroid's form. This revelation not only provides clues about Dimorphos' origin but also implies that the upcoming mission to study it will encounter a transformed asteroid rather than an impact crater.<br /><br />DART's endeavor left scientists uncertain about its long-term consequences and its implications for understanding Dimorphos. Planetary scientist Sabina Raducan and her team chose to simulate the effects of DART's impact rather than directly observing Dimorphos. They recreated Dimorphos and the DART impact, analyzing various outcomes like momentum transfer, ejected material, and Dimorphos' composition and density.<br /><br />Asteroids vary in composition; some are dense remnants of planetary formation, while others are loosely assembled conglomerates of dust and rock. Both <keyword id="20759967" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="didymos" source="keywords">Didymos</keyword> and Dimorphos fall into the latter category of "rubble piles." Surprisingly, simulations indicate that DART's impact did not create a crater but instead caused a widespread alteration of Dimorphos' surface, suggesting it is exceedingly weak and more akin to a "rubble pile" than previously believed.<br /><br />Its strength is estimated to be minimal, comparable to asteroids Ryugu and <keyword id="20186562" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bennu" source="keywords">Bennu</keyword>, which have been studied by spacecraft. Additionally, simulations suggest that Dimorphos has a low density, denser than Ryugu and Bennu but still significantly less dense than Earth. This aligns with the hypothesis that Dimorphos formed from debris shed by Didymos due to its rotational motion.<br /><br />The European <keyword id="41531" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">Space</keyword> Agency's forthcoming Hera mission will play a critical role in validating these findings. If Hera's observations coincide with the simulations, it will offer valuable insights into Dimorphos' evolution, asteroid formation, binary systems, and future deflection techniques.<br /><br />This research not only sheds light on Dimorphos but also underscores the potential for similar asteroids to undergo substantial changes. Overall, it furnishes essential knowledge for future asteroid exploration and deflection endeavors, highlighting the unpredictability of space exploration, even when meticulously planned.<br />

Crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid may have changed its shape in addition to its trajectory, NASA scientists find

<ul><li>The first samples from an asteroid have arrived on Earth and scientists are hopeful that they may include clues to origins of life before it appeared on the planet. </li><li>The samples collected from under the surface of <keyword id="7355997" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid-ryugu">Asteroid Ryugu</keyword> are believed to contain pockets of dust that have been untouched since the universe first formed.</li><li>According to Hayabusa-2’s mission manager, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (<keyword id="280363" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="JAXA">JAXA</keyword>) only needs around 0.1 grams of dust to conduct all of its research.<br /></li></ul>Earth has known about the existence of asteroids since the 1800s, but it has taken humans more than two centuries to grab a piece. <br /><br />Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa-2 probe, launched back in 2014, has collected samples from an asteroid 300 million kilometres from Earth called Asteroid Ryugu, and successfully brought them back to the planet. <br /><br /><div type="twitter" handle="haya2e_jaxa" handlename="HAYABUSA2@JAXA" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/538084594512187392/2swQgORB_normal.png" favoritecount="12532" retweetcount="1691" status="Capsule collection! The helicopter team immediately flew to the location identified by the DFS team. They searched… https://t.co/Ogj4M35bG3" createdat="1607246180000" id="1335513393122316288"></div><br /><strong>Holding  clues to the ‘origins of life’<br /></strong>The samples that have been brought back to Earth come from two different sources. One is dust from the surface of Asteroid Ryugu and the other is underneath the surface.<br /><br />The material from under the surface of Asteroid Ryugu is thought to be unchanged since the universe first came into existence. And, if scientists find organic material within these samples, it could provide answers to some of humanity’s burgeoning questions like how did life begin in the universe, even before it started on Earth?<br /><br />“We still don’t know the origin of life on Earth and through this Hayabusa-2 mission, if we are able to study and understand these organic martial from Ryugu, it could be that these organic materials were the source of life on Earth,“ Hayabusa-2’s mission manager, Makoto Yoshikawa, told the press shortly before the capsule <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-12-japan-capsule-asteroid-samples-australia.html">landed in Australia</a>. <br /><br />According to him, JAXA only needs around 0.1 grams of dust to conduct all of its research.<br /><br /><strong>The journey isn't over for Hayabusa-2<br /></strong>The samples from Hayabusa-2 are back on Earth, but the probe is not done exploring the universe yet. After its visit to Asteroid Ryugu, the probe is now headed towards a smaller asteroid dubbed 1998 KY26. This journey is expected to take ten years to complete — one way. <br /><br />So, the next time we hopefully hear from Hayabusa-2 will be after two decades. <br /><br />The probe’s success with Ryugu, where it could touch down on the surface twice, indicates that getting to 1998 KY26 shouldn’t be a problem. Only one thing stands in its way — the possibility that Hayabusa-2 may run out of fuel.<br /><br />The return of Hayabusa-2’s samples comes within weeks of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) OSIRIS-REx probe conducting its own successful heist from Asteroid Bennu. <br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/petrol-is-less-than-a-rupee-away-from-being-more-expensive-than-it-has-ever-been-for-indian-consumers/articleshow/79601841.cms">Petrol is less than a rupee away from being more expensive than it has ever been for Indian consumers</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/icici-bank-is-capitalising-on-hdfc-banks-setback-with-its-own-digital-services-but-analysts-warn-that-market-share-isnt-all-that-matters/articleshow/79606479.cms"><strong>ICICI Bank is capitalising on HDFC Bank's setback with its own digital services but analysts warn that market share isn't all that matters</strong></a><br />

Earth gets its first asteroid samples from 300 million kilometres away — and they could hold clues to the origins of life

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6355311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="japan">Japan</keyword>'s <keyword id="2083935" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hayabusa-2">Hayabusa-2</keyword> mission <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-lands-spacecraft-on-ryugu-asteroid-2019-7">bombed an asteroid</a> in order to scoop up rock and dust from below its surface.</li><li>The spacecraft <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-live-japan-hayabusa-asteroid-blasting-spacecraft-drops-sample-2020-12">dropped the asteroid material into the Australian outback</a> on Saturday.</li><li>That made Japan the first nation to collect samples from a space rock.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-spacecraft-stored-pounds-of-rock-2020-10">NASA just collected samples</a> from another <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-bennu-is-hollow-spinning-to-death-2020-11">asteroid</a>, but it won't bring them back to Earth until 2023. </li><li>Photos show how Japan's space agency, JAXA, accomplished the feat.</li></ul><p>A <keyword id="1278516" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="fireball">fireball</keyword> streaking across the sky disturbed the darkness of the Australian outback on Saturday night. Then the object from space poofed out a parachute, slowing its plummet toward the ground. Minutes later, it landed gently in the red desert dust and began beaming out its location.</p><p>The flying object was a capsule containing the first samples ever collected from an <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> - the fruits of Japan's Hayabusa-2 mission.</p><div type="image" title="hayabusa-2 asteroid sample return japan landing australia fireball" height="2251" width="1500" msid="79615860" hostid="261"></div><p>In 2014, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a spacecraft to asteroid <keyword id="3634650" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="ryugu">Ryugu</keyword>: a primitive, half-mile-wide rock that zips through our solar system up to 131 million miles (211 million kilometers) from the sun. </p><p>The Hayabusa-2 probe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-spacecraft-touches-down-on-asteroid-to-get-samples-2019-2">landed</a> on Ryugu in February to collect shallow samples from the asteroid's surface. Then two months later, the mission went a step further: The probe blasted a 33-foot crater into Ryugu using a copper plate and a box of explosives. That loosened rocks and exposed material below the surface. In July 2019, Hayabusa-2 lowered itself once again and scooped up the debris.</p><p>Scientists believe this subsurface material could be as old as our solar system, since it's been shielded from the sun's radiation and hasn't undergone the heating and cooling processes that altered rock inside the planets.</p><p>As such, the Hayabusa-2 samples could reveal new details about the beginnings of our solar system and the origins of life on Earth.</p><div type="image" title="Hayabusa2 Ryuku asteroid landing" height="1000" width="1000" msid="79615862" hostid="261"></div><p>With that asteroid loot on board, the spacecraft zipped back and arrived in Earth's orbit on Saturday. Then it released the sample capsule - the "treasure box," as JAXA calls it - and allowed it to fall towards Earth.</p><p>All in all, Hayabusa-2 has traveled nearly 3.3 billion miles. </p><h2>Retrieving asteroid loot from the Australian outback</h2><p>As the capsule rocketed through the atmosphere at 7.5 miles per second, it burned a path across the night sky. JAXA captured the burst in its live feed of the sample return - the embedded video below starts at that moment.</p><p>About 6 miles above the ground, the capsule released a parachute and drifted safely into the wilderness of Woomera, <keyword id="6355478" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="australia">Australia</keyword>. It landed at about 2:28 a.m. local time on Sunday.</p><div type="image" title="hayabusa-2 asteroid sample return collection" height="2000" width="2666" msid="79615863" hostid="261"></div><p>Upon arrival, the treasure box beamed out a signal to several nearby antennae, allowing a JAXA team to triangulate the capsule's location.</p><div type="image" title="hayabusa-2 asteroid sample return japan jaxa antenna" height="1333" width="1777" msid="79615864" hostid="261"></div><p>The retrieval team waited until the sun rose, then drove out to the landing spot.</p><p>They reached the capsule at 8:03 a.m. local time and packed it up for travel.</p><div type="image" title="hayabusa-2 asteroid sample return japan jaxa capsule" height="1706" width="2275" msid="79615865" hostid="261"></div><p>"JAXA's outstanding technical achievement today is testament to the depth of <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> and technology knowledge in Japan," Jan Adams, Australia's ambassador to Japan, said in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fQGsBKnH-U&amp;feature=emb_logologo">press conference</a>. "Hayabusa-2 has delivered its precious cargo back to Earth."</p><h2>Organic materials on Ryugu could point to the origins of life</h2><p>Next, JAXA will transport the sample to Japan and distribute portions of it for scientific study.</p><p>Ryugu is a C-type asteroid, which means it's rich with organic carbon molecules, water, and possibly amino acids - the building blocks for proteins that were essential to the evolution of life on Earth. Some theories posit that an asteroid first delivered amino acids to our planet.</p><div type="image" title="asteroid ryugu hayabusa-2 video gif" height="450" width="800" msid="79615866" hostid="261"></div><p>"Organic materials are the origins of life on Earth, but we still don't know where they came from," Makoto Yoshikawa, a Hayabusa-2 project mission manager, said in a briefing on Friday, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/04/japan-hayabusa2-asteroid-dust-ryugu">The Guardian</a>. "We are hoping to find clues to the origin of life on Earth by analyzing details of the organic materials brought back by Hayabusa-2."</p><p>The Hayabusa-2 spacecraft, meanwhile, will continue on an 11-year extended mission to explore a small, rapidly spinning asteroid called 1998 KY26.</p><h2>NASA is up next</h2><p>A NASA spacecraft scooped up its own asteroid sample this year: Osiris-Rex (short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer). The probe, which launched in 2016, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-spacecraft-stored-pounds-of-rock-2020-10">high-fived asteroid Bennu</a> on October 20, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">landing</a> on its surface for just six seconds to stir up dust. In that brief landing, it collected a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-leaking-into-space-2020-10">whopping 2 pounds of sample material</a>.</p><p>The spacecraft won't return with its bounty until 2023.</p><p>But combined, the samples from Osiris-Rex and Hyabusa-2 will provide the world's first comprehensive set of pristine asteroid material. NASA and JAXA have agreed to share portions of their samples with each other for scientific study.</p><p>Fractions of both agencies' asteroid samples will also be stored for future research.</p><p>"These samples returned from Bennu will also allow future planetary scientists to ask questions we can't even think of today and to be able to use analysis techniques that aren't even invented yet," Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in a briefing after Osiris-Rex collected its sample.</p>

Japan has completed its 3-billion-mile mission to collect dust from an asteroid. Photos show the prize falling into Australia like a fireball.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6355311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="japan">Japan</keyword>'s <keyword id="2083935" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hayabusa-2">Hayabusa-2</keyword> spacecraft is set to deliver a sample of rock and dust from <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> <keyword id="3634650" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="ryugu">Ryugu</keyword> to Earth on Saturday.</li><li>Hayabusa-2 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-lands-spacecraft-on-ryugu-asteroid-2019-7">blasted the asteroid with a bullet</a> in 2019. The "treasure box" it's bringing back holds the world's first sample from below the surface of an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-bennu-is-hollow-spinning-to-death-2020-11">asteroid</a>.</li><li>Studying this <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-spacecraft-stored-pounds-of-rock-2020-10">space rock</a> can reveal new information about the evolution of the solar system and the origins of life on Earth.</li><li>Watch live coverage of the return below starting at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday.</li></ul><p>A Japanese spacecraft is set to return from its asteroid-blasting mission on Saturday. In a dramatic finale, the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft is expected to send at least 100 milligrams of alien space rock plummeting into the Australian outback.</p><p>The sample comes from asteroid Ryugu: a primitive, half-mile-wide rock that zips through our solar system up to 131 million miles (211 million kilometers) from the sun. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (<keyword id="280363" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="JAXA">JAXA</keyword>) launched Hayabusa-2 in 2014 with the goal of collecting the first sample of material from below an asteroid's surface.</p><p>The spacecraft first <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-spacecraft-touches-down-on-asteroid-to-get-samples-2019-2">landed</a> on Ryugu in February to collect shallow samples from the surface. But scientists knew that probing deeper could reveal more pure rock from the beginnings of our solar system, since that material hasn't been exposed to harsh radiation from the sun.</p><div type="image" title="hayabusa 2 landing asteroid ryugu sample collection" height="1080" width="1920" msid="79574451" hostid="261"></div><p>So in April 2019, Hayabusa-2 blasted a 33-foot crater into the asteroid using a copper plate and a box of explosives. That loosened rocks and exposed material below the surface. Three months later, in July 2019, the probe lowered itself to Ryugu once again and scooped up the debris.</p><div type="image" title="Hayabusa2 Ryuku asteroid landing" height="1000" width="1000" msid="79574452" hostid="261"></div><p>Now, the probe has almost completed the 5.5-million-mile (9-million-kilometer) journey home.</p><p>Sometime between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, the spacecraft will shoot a capsule containing the samples toward Earth.</p><p>A bright fireball will streak across the sky as the "treasure box," as <a href="https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20201116_extMission/">JAXA</a> calls it, plummets through the atmosphere at 7.5 miles per second. About 6 miles above the ground, the capsule should deploy parachutes and drift to the desert floor of Woomera, Australia. Then it will send out a <a href="https://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20201204_ts4/">beacon</a> to lead JAXA's retrieval team to its location.</p><p>Hayabusa-2, meanwhile, will embark on an 11-year extended mission to rendezvous with another asteroid, called 1998 KY26.</p><h2>'Clues to the origin of life on Earth'</h2><p>Asteroids accumulated from the leftover crumbs of our early solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. Material that didn't make it into the planets coalesced. So what scientists find in those primitive space rocks can reveal a lot about the solar system's history.</p><div type="image" title="asteroid ryugu hayabusa-2 video gif" height="450" width="800" msid="79574453" hostid="261"></div><p>What's more, Ryugu is a C-type asteroid, which means it's rich with organic carbon molecules, water, and possibly amino acids - the building blocks for proteins that were essential to the evolution of life on Earth. Some theories posit that an asteroid first delivered amino acids to our planet.</p><p>"Organic materials are the origins of life on Earth, but we still don't know where they came from," Makoto Yoshikawa, a Hayabusa2 project mission manager, said in a briefing on Friday, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/04/japan-hayabusa2-asteroid-dust-ryugu">The Guardian</a>. "We are hoping to find clues to the origin of life on Earth by analyzing details of the organic materials brought back by Hayabusa2."</p><h2><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> and JAXA are each bringing home asteroid samples to share</h2><p>NASA sent its own spacecraft to an asteroid this year: Osiris-Rex (short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer). The probe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-spacecraft-stored-pounds-of-rock-2020-10">high-fived asteroid Bennu</a> on October 20, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">landing</a> on its surface for just six seconds to stir up dust. In that brief landing, it collected a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-leaking-into-space-2020-10">whopping 2 pounds of sample</a>.</p><p>That spacecraft won't return with its bounty until 2023.</p><p>But combined, the samples from Osiris-Rex and Hyabusa-2 will provide the world's first comprehensive set of pristine asteroid material. NASA and JAXA have agreed to share bits of their samples with each other for scientific study.</p><p>Portions of both agencies' asteroid samples will also be stored for future research.</p><p>"These samples returned from Bennu will also allow future planetary scientists to ask questions we can't even think of today and to be able to use analysis techniques that aren't even invented yet," Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's Planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Division, said in a briefing after Osiris-Rex collected its samples.</p><p><strong>Watch JAXA's live coverage of its first asteroid-sample return, starting 12 p.m. ET on Saturday</strong></p>

A Japanese spacecraft is about to send a 'treasure box' of asteroid dust plummeting to Earth. Watch the sample return live.

<br /><ul><li>Samples collected from a sea-otter shaped <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> named Itokawa contain water. </li><li>Itokawa and other asteroids like it might have brought water for half of the world’s oceans when they bombarded into Earth billions of years ago. </li><li>Finding water on the second most common type of asteroid in the <keyword id="52393" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Solar-System">Solar System</keyword> makes them a "high priority target for exploration” according to one of the members of the team that made the discovery.</li></ul><br />Normally, you wouldn’t think to look for water on an asteroid, especially in a nominally dry asteroid like Itokawa. <br /><br />Samples from another asteroid, Ryugu, had nearly <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6437/eaaw0422">no water</a> at all.<br /><br />
	<div type="image" title="itokawa" msid="69139394" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;In 2005, JAXA&amp;#39;s Hayabusa spacecraft landed on asteroid Itokawa (above) and collected samples that were returned to Earth&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



<br />Yet, two cosmochemists at the <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20190501-discoveries-asu-researchers-find-water-in-asteroid-itokawa-samples">Arizona State University (ASU)</a> followed their hunch to find that not only did Itokawa contain water but that half of the world’s oceans could be a by product of hundreds of asteroids just like it.<br /><br />
  <div type="ExtQuote" text="Until we proposed it, no one thought to look for water. I'm happy to report that our hunch paid off." auname="Maitrayee Bose, Assistant Professor, ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration"></div>



<br /><br />Finding water on asteroids isn’t just about determining Earth’s origins but also about finding alternative sources for a resource that is increasingly becoming scarce on Earth.<br /><br />
  <div type="ExtQuote" text="That makes these asteroids high-priority targets for exploration." auname="Maitrayee Bose, Assistant Professor, ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration"></div>



<br />Itokawa, having been in its <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/25143-itokawa/in-depth/">current state</a> for 8 million years, has been subject to multiple impacts, shocks and fragmentation. This, in turn, should raise its temperature to drive off water. <br /><br />So, in order to see exactly how much water was in the sample collected from Itokawa — the first ever asteroid samples to return to Earth for examination — the team at ASU used a Nanoscale Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (NanoSIMS).<br /><br />To the team’s surprise, the results indicated that the samples from Itokawa were unexpectedly rich in water — even though they came from the surface of the asteroid where they were the most susceptible to damage.<br /><br />
  <div type="ExtQuote" text="The minerals have hydrogen isotopic compositions that are indistinguishable from Earth." auname="Zilliang Jin, a postdoctoral scholar,ASU’S School of Earth and Space Exploration"></div>



<br /><br />Itokawa isn’t the only one of its kind. According to Maitrayee Bose, one of the authors of the discovery, "S-type asteroids are one of the most common objects in the <keyword id="1898611" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Asteroid-belt">asteroid belt</keyword>.” In fact, they’re the second-most common type of asteroid in our Solar System.<br /><br /><br /><br />

There’s now proof that half of the world’s oceans came from outer space

<p>Japan has landed two hopping robots onto asteroid Ryugu as part of the Hayabusa2 mission. It's Japan's second mission to an asteroid, where it plans to return some samples of Ryugu to Earth by the early 2020s. So that scientists can study the samples with more sophisticated instruments and hopefuly uncover some of the biggest scientific mysteries of all. Following is a transcript of the video.</p><p>On September 21, Japan's space agency made history. It became the first country to land not one, but two rovers onto an asteroid. Already, the unmanned rovers have sent back the first images while on the surface. And no, so far it's looking like there are no alien cities on its surface. But this mission, called Hayabusa2, could ultimately help solve one of the grandest scientific mysteries of all: Where did life on Earth come from?</p><p>Scientists have been studying asteroids for years. NASA, for example, landed its N.E.A.R Shoemaker spacecraft on asteroid Eros in 2001. But its Japan's space agency that is the first to deploy a pair of rovers to explore an asteroid's surface. Japan launched the Hayabusa2 mission in December, 2014. So, it has already been about 3.5 years in the making.</p><p>The spacecraft rendezvoused with its target in June 2018. Snapping a series of pictures that revealed the asteroid's shape. The asteroid of choice was 162173 Ryugu, or Ryugu for short. In Japanese it refers to a magical, underwater Dragon Palace. Now, the asteroid flies through space, around the sun ever 16 months. Conveniently between the orbits of Earth and Mars.</p><p>Making it an ideal target for the mission. Which, if all goes according to plan, will return a sample of the asteroid to Earth by the early 2020s. As the spacecraft flew closer to the asteroid's surface, it prepared to deploy its first two unmanned rovers. But these guys aren't your typical space rover. They're slightly bigger than the size of a large iPhone. Measuring just 7 by 18 centimeters. And they won't be driving around on the asteroid's surface. They'll be hopping.</p><p>Yup, you heard that right. Hopping. Japan designed the rovers with a spinning cylinder inside that gives it the power to hop about a few meters at a time. This reduces the risk of getting stuck on the rocky, uneven surface. But it doesn't come without it's own risk. Asteroids are relatively small and therefore have a weak gravitational pull. And even by asteroid standards, Ryugu is tiny. It's less than a kilometer across, making it no larger than a few city blocks. So, if the rovers hop too high, they could potentially go flying off into space. But so far, the mission looks good.</p><p>The rovers have already achieved their first hop. Now, this may be the first time Japan has landed on an asteroid but it won't be the last. These two rovers are just the first of four that Japan aims to land on Ryugu. The other two rovers are scheduled to land within the next year. In the process, Japan hopes to collect and return a sample of Ryugu to Earth. So that scientists can study it in more detail, looking for traces of water and organic material. If it turns out that asteroids like Ryugu contain similar material that we see on Earth it would be strong evidence for the idea that life on Earth first came from an asteroids billions of years ago. But this is a mystery that we can only answer if we study asteroids directly.</p>

Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JAXA via AP</span></p><p class="caption">This image from JAXA shows its SCI explosive dropped from Hayabusa2 spacecraft to make a crater on the Ryugu asteroid on Friday.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Japan's space agency, JAXA, said it successfully dropped a small bomb on an asteroid as part of its mission to understand the origins of the solar system.</strong></li><li><strong>The Hayabusa2 spacecraft detonated the explosive onto the Ryugu asteroid on Friday, in an effort to create an artificial crater, JAXA said.</strong></li><li><strong>If all goes to plan, JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2 back to the asteroid later to collect underground samples of water and other organic substances, which could help the agency better understand the history of the solar system.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1554543397829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyIqOY478Q2F0O6cB48ilHkBBQow">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></strong></li></ul><p>Japan's space agency said it successfully dropped a small bomb on an asteroid on Friday as part of its mission to better understand the history of the solar system.</p><p>The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/">said</a> its Hayabusa2 spacecraft detonated the copper explosive, also known as the Small Carry-on Inspector (SCI), on the Ryugu asteroid on Friday.</p><p>The SCI weighs about 2 kg (4.4 lbs) and is the size of a baseball, The Associated Press (AP) reported.</p><p>Hayabusa2 released the SCI about 500 meters (1,640 feet) above Ryugu's surface around 11:13 a.m. Japanese time on Friday, <a href="https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1113991811108728832">JAXA tweeted</a>.</p><p>The goal of the explosion was to create an artificial crater on Ryugu. JAXA is currently examining if or how it managed to create the crater.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JAXA via AP</span></p><p class="caption">A computer graphic showing the Hayabusa2 spacecraft above the Ryugu asteroid.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A copper plate on the bottom of the ball was expected to turn into a ball as it fell from the spacecraft and slam into Ryugu at 2 km (1.2 miles) per second, the AP said. It was intended to punch a 10 meter (32.8 feet)- wide hole into the asteroid, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47818460">the BBC reported</a>.</p><p>Friday's mission was incredibly risky for Hayabusa2 as it had to immediately move to hide on the other side the asteroid in order to shield itself from any flying debris from the explosion.</p><p>JAXA is currently waiting for images of the explosion to transmit back to Earth. It is not entirely clear how long this will take.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JAXA via AP</span></p><p class="caption">The Ryugu asteroid as seen on Friday.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>If all goes according to plan, JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2 back to the asteroid later, when dust and debris from the explosion settles, the AP said.</p><p>The agency hopes to gather underground samples of Ryugu, which could contain organic substances and water that could point to the origins of the solar system, <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/04/9952418c6bac-hayabusa2-starts-experiment-to-create-crater-on-asteroid.html">Japan's Kyodo News reported</a>.</p><p>It is hoped that Hayabusa2 and the samples it has gather will return to earth by late 2020.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JAXA/YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">JAXA's mission control during Friday's mission.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Last September <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-japan-land-hopping-robots-on-asteroid-ryugu-2018-9">JAXA landed two hopping robots onto Ryugu</a>, also as part of the Hayabusa2 mission - making Japan the first country in the world to land rovers on an asteroid.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-rovers-just-sent-photos-of-an-asteroid-280-million-kilometres-away-2018-9">Japanese rovers just transmitted the first photos from an asteroid 280 million kilometres away</a></em></p><p>Hayabusa2 also successfully touched down on a flat surface on Ryugu in February and collected surface dust and debris.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JAXA via AP</span></p><p class="caption">The shadow of Hayabusa2 spacecraft after its successful touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu during a separate mission on February 22, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Markoto Yoshikawa, the mission leader, said according to the AP: "So far, Hayabusa2 has done everything as planned, and we are delighted. But we still have more missions to achieve and it's too early for us to celebrate with 'banzai.'"</p><p>"Banzai" is a traditional Japanese exclamation wishing ten thousand years of long life.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-japan-land-hopping-robots-on-asteroid-ryugu-2018-9">Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Japan dropped a bomb on an asteroid in the name of science, as it tries to learn more about the history of the solar system

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-says-space-probe-landed-on-asteroid-to-get-soil-sample-2019-7">Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2</a> has landed on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/here-are-the-first-pictures-from-the-rovers-japan-just-landed-on-an-asteroid-280-million-km-away-2018-9">surface</a> of an asteroid called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/category/ryugu">Ryugu</a> that's over 5.5 million miles from Earth.</li><li>Ryugu is a carbon-rich rock that could hold clues to the history of our solar system. The rock might contain amino acids, the essential building blocks of life.</li><li>Hayabusa-2 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japans-hayabusa2-spacecraft-drops-bomb-on-ryugu-asteroid-2019-4">blasted a hole</a> in the asteroid in April in order to collect samples from subsurface rock that's been sheltered from the wear and tear of space.</li><li>NASA is also conducting a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-approach-nasa-tv-youtube-2018-12">mission</a> to visit an asteroid and collect samples, but without the explosives.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>The life of an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-telescope-gault-asteroid-spinning-apart-images-2019-3">asteroid</a> is lonely. The rocks spend eons drifting through the cold vacuum of space.</p><p>But on Wednesday, the asteroid Ryugu welcomed a special visitor: Japan's Hayabusa-2 probe successfully <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-says-space-probe-landed-on-asteroid-to-get-soil-sample-2019-7">landed</a> on the asteroid's surface&#xa0;at <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20190711e_PPTD_ImageBulletin/">9:06 p.m. ET</a>.</p><p>The <a href="https://global.jaxa.jp/">Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)</a>&#xa0;launched <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/">Hayabusa-2</a> into space in December 2014. Its mission: explore and collect samples from Ryugu, a primitive asteroid half-a-mile in diameter that orbits the sun at a distance up to 131 million miles (211 million kilometers).</p><p>The probe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-japan-probe-arrives-at-asteroid-after-nearly-four-year-space-odyssey-2018-6">reached</a> its destination in June 2018, then got to work making observations, measuring the asteroid's gravity, and rehearsing to touch down. It blasted the asteroid with a copper plate and a box of explosives in April in order to loosen rocks and expose material under the surface, then successfully landed on Ryugu last night to gather up the rock and soil debris.</p><p>The spacecraft captured the images below as it left the asteroid's surface.&#xa0;</p><p>"First photo was taken at 10:06:32 JST (on-board time) and you can see the gravel flying upwards. Second shot was at 10:08:53 where the darker region near the centre is due to touchdown," JAXA <a href="https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1149223290684108801">tweeted</a>.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><h2>Ancient rock samples</h2><p>Asteroids are made of rock and metal, and they take all kinds of quirky shapes, ranging in size from pebbles to 600-mile megaliths. Most of them hang out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, though Ryugu's orbit sometimes takes it between Mars and Earth.</p><p>Some asteroids date back to the dawn of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, when materials leftover from the formation of planets coalesced into these chunks of rock. In that sense, asteroids can serve as time capsules: What scientists find in those primitive rocks could tell us a lot about the solar system's history.</p><p>Ryugu is a C-type asteroid, which means it's rich with organic carbon molecules, water, and possibly amino acids. Amino acids form the building blocks for protein and were essential to the evolution of life on Earth. Some theories posit that an asteroid first brought amino acids here, gifting our planet with the seeds of life, though that's still debated.&#xa0;</p><p>About three-quarters of our solar system's asteroids are C-type. Hayabusa-2 aims to be the first mission to bring samples from such an asteroid back to Earth.&#xa0;</p><p>The probe initially <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-spacecraft-touches-down-on-asteroid-to-get-samples-2019-2">landed</a> on Ryugu in February and collected shallow samples from just below the surface, but mission managers decided to gather some deeper rock samples as well, since that material hasn't been exposed to harsh weathering from space. To accomplish that, the probe had to<span> lift back off the asteroid, then blast a <a href="http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/what-to-expect-hayabusa2-sci.html">10-meter crater</a> into the surface in order to</span> access to the rock beneath.</p><p>So in April, Hayabusa-2 released and detonated a box of explosives in space that shot a copper plate into the asteroid.</p><p>Wednesday's landing then made a splash in all that freed-up material.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>"These images were taken before and after touchdown by the small monitor camera (CAM-H). The first is 4 seconds before touchdown, the second is at touchdown itself and the third is 4 seconds after touchdown. In the third image, you can see the amount of rocks that rise," JAXA <a href="https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1149223290684108801">tweeted</a>.</p><p>After it touched down, Hayabusa-2 then collected a new set of samples and left Ryugu's surface. At the end of this year, it will begin the 5.5 million-mile (9 million-kilometer) journey home. So far, everything is <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/news/schedule/">on schedule</a>.&#xa0;</p><p>&#xa0;</p><h2>NASA is on a similar mission</h2><p>NASA is also studying a far-off asteroid.</p><p>The agency's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex">OSIRIS-REx</a> mission <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nasa-s-osiris-rex-spacecraft-arrives-at-asteroid-bennu-1027777174">reached</a> a much smaller C-type asteroid, Bennu, in August 2018. But the probe didn't land on Bennu's surface; instead, it's been orbiting at a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/osiris-rex-breaks-another-orbit-record">record-breakingly close</a> distance.</p><p>The plan is for OSIRIS-REx to approach Bennu's surface in July 2020, but the spacecraft will only make contact for about five seconds. During that quick instant, it will blow nitrogen gas to stir up dust and pebbles and collect the samples. If all goes according to plan, it will return that material to Earth in 2023.&#xa0;</p><p>The asteroid's surface has turned out to be rougher than expected, however, and debris flying off the space rock can pose a threat to the orbiting spacecraft. So NASA is still <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-invites-public-to-help-asteroid-mission-choose-sample-site">choosing</a> its sampling site.</p><p>But Bennu has already made a significant finding: In December, before it entered orbit around Bennu, the probe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-nasa-probe-finds-signs-of-water-on-nearby-asteroid-bennu-2018-12">discovered</a> that the asteroid harbored ingredients for water (oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded together). Though Bennu is too small to host liquid water, it's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-newly-arrived-osiris-rex-spacecraft-already-discovers-water-on-asteroid">possible</a> that water could have once existed on its parent asteroid, which Bennu broke away from between 700 million and 2 billion years ago.</p><p>Though NASA's asteroid-exploration mission will collect a larger quantity of sample material than Japan's, the JAXA team <a href="http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20190625_ver5_en2.pdf">hopes</a> that comparing the samples from two different sites on the same asteroid will yield novel information about how long-term space exposure changes asteroids over time.</p><p>Both Bennu and Ryugu could also teach scientists a lot about the history of the solar system and potentially - if they contain organic materials - about the origins of life on Earth.</p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-japan-land-hopping-robots-on-asteroid-ryugu-2018-9">Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A Japanese spacecraft has landed on an asteroid after blasting it with a bullet. The mission will bring back rock samples to Earth.

<p>On November 26, a Japanese spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and the moon from 1.9 million miles away, just drifting through the inky black void of space:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JAXA/Hayabusa</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>When you think about the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-solar-system-charts-wrong-not-to-scale-2015-7">scale of the universe</a>, it's hard to imagine that most of it is made of empty space. Photos like this one help give us some context.</p><p>The moon is roughly 239,000 miles away. The closest planet, Venus, is 25 million miles away. Pluto is a staggering 3 billion miles away. And that's just our tiny solar system.</p><p>The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) <a href="http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/">Hayabusa 2</a> captured this image on its journey to the asteroid Ryugu. The spacecraft is expected to rendezvous with the asteroid in 2018.</p><p>When it arrives, the probe will take pictures and samples, then return to Earth by 2020:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/">JAXA</a></span></p><p class="caption">Artist's concept of Hayabusa 2 approaching asteroid Ryugu.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Scientists think that asteroids may have carried the necessary ingredients for life to Earth long ago when the solar system was first forming. So the Hayabusa 2 mission could help us figure out <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-spacecraft-built-2015-10">how life evolved on Earth</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-engine-revolutionize-hypersonic-flight-2015-11">This breakthrough could make it much cheaper to send aircraft into space</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5nM2c4eTouaU3c2gSAWlyoiZVHAyrV0M" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "asteroid ryugu" and got 11 results

Seeds of life among the stars: MIT scientists find complex carbon molecules in a distant cloud, pointing to clues to Earth’s beginnings!

BI India Bureau

Earth got its water and organic matter from asteroids, finds Japan's space probe

IANS

Crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid may have changed its shape in addition to its trajectory, NASA scientists find

Ashmita Gupta

Earth gets its first asteroid samples from 300 million kilometres away — and they could hold clues to the origins of life

Prabhjote Gill

Japan has completed its 3-billion-mile mission to collect dust from an asteroid. Photos show the prize falling into Australia like a fireball.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

A Japanese spacecraft is about to send a 'treasure box' of asteroid dust plummeting to Earth. Watch the sample return live.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

There’s now proof that half of the world’s oceans came from outer space

Prabhjote Gill

Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid

Nathaniel Lee,Jessica Orwig

Japan dropped a bomb on an asteroid in the name of science, as it tries to learn more about the history of the solar system

Alexandra Ma

A Japanese spacecraft has landed on an asteroid after blasting it with a bullet. The mission will bring back rock samples to Earth.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Feel incredibly lonely as you stare at this photo of the Earth and moon drifting through space

Kelly Dickerson

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