Japanese research team said that water and organic matter were found in asteroid samples | Apple Daily

The Japanese research team said that water and organic matter were found in the sand and stone samples of the asteroid “Ryugu” sent back to Earth at the end of last year.

The unmanned probe Hayabusa 2 of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returned a sealed capsule containing a sample of the asteroid “Ryugu” to Earth on December 6 last year. Six teams, including Hokkaido University and Tohoku University, separately analyzed samples in chemistry and organics. The Institute of Planetary Matter of Okayama University and the Kochi Core Institute of the Marine Research and Development Institute have also begun to develop methods and techniques for analyzing samples.

Since the asteroid’s underground matter is not easily affected by cosmic rays, samples have become the key to studying the birth of the solar system and the origin of life. Eizo Nakamura, a distinguished professor at Okayama University, said: “From the conclusion alone, (in the sample) contains a lot of water and organic matter. The specific situation will be further explained in a paper.” He also said that he has analyzed the hydrogen and carbon elements that constitute water and organic matter. Perform the measurement.

At present, JAXA only submits some samples that have sorted out the size and weight information, and the remaining samples will also be handed over to the researchers in the future.

Kyodo News

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