After 3.3 billion mile Journey Hayabusa2 Returns Next Week with its Cargo from Ryugu

I think I will go outside and get a rock...it is from a four and a half billion year old space rock too...Planet earth. And it will not cost a cent to go pick up unless I hurt my back trying to pick it up and wind up getting x-rays and five trips to the chiropractor.

Imagine the excitement of the team that gets to work with the sample. What a wonderful achievement by the Japanese, well done them. As long as it survives the re-entry of course.

originally posted by: KansasGirl
a reply to: gortex

How do they know that the asteroid is 4.5 billion years old?

Wikipedia says "Observations from Hayabusa 2 showed that the surface of Ryugu is very young and has an age of 8.9 ± 2.5 Million years based on the data collected from the artificial crater that was created with an explosive by Hayabusa 2."

Ryugu is a rubble pile asteroid that formed from debris from asteroid collisions, so it wouldn't be as old as the Solar System.

a reply to: wildespace

Ryugu is a rubble pile asteroid that formed from debris from asteroid collisions, so it wouldn't be as old as the Solar System.

But the components that make up Ryugu are left overs from the formation of the Solar System.

The asteroid Ryugu may look like a solid piece of rock, but it's more accurate to liken it to an orbiting pile of rubble. Given the relative fragility of this collection of loosely bound boulders, researchers believe that Ryugu and similar asteroids probably don't last very long due to disruptions and collisions from other asteroids. Ryugu is estimated to have adopted its current form around 10 million to 20 million years ago, which sounds like a lot compared to a human lifespan, but makes it a mere infant when compared to larger solar system bodies.

"Ryugu is too small to have survived the whole 4.6 billion years of solar system history," said Professor Seiji Sugita from the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of Tokyo. "Ryugu-sized objects would be disrupted by other asteroids within several hundred million years on average. We think Ryugu spent most of its life as part of a larger, more solid parent body. This is based on observations by Hayabusa2 which show Ryugu is very loose and porous. Such bodies are likely formed from reaccumulations of collision debris."
www.sciencedaily.com...

a reply to: rickymouse

Depends on the rock. Most of Earth's rock has been reprocessed and recycled. Some of it is very new. All of your constituent components are as old as the universe, just not in their current configuration.

Like a celestial Santa Clause Hayabusa2 has delivered its package to the excited boys and girls on the ground in Australia.


The Ryugu has landed , congratulations JAXA.

It's a remarkable weekend of firsts in space research. Automatic docking in lunar orbit by China, now a sample return by a probe that has meanwhile carried on to do other things.

I find it remarkable, and sad, that there are people who choose to reject the validity of these achievements out of ignorance and stupidity instead of rejoicing at them.

a reply to: gortex

Thats great news.

Congrats to JAXA and everyone involved