Signs of Life in Asteroid Sample Turn Out to Be Something Embarrassing
Last year, researchers excitedly announced that they had found two organic compounds essential for living organisms in samples retrieved from an asteroid called Ryugu. The Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft obtained the samples from the space rock in 2019.
Samples of 'alien' asteroid Ryugu are crawling with life — from Earth
Scientists have found microorganisms crawling over a sample retrieved from the 200 million-mile-distant asteroid Ryugu. But they almost certainly came from Earth.
Life Found On Ryugu Asteroid Sample, But It Looks Very Familiar
Samples taken from the space-returned piece of asteroid Ryugu were collected and prepared under strict anti-contamination controls. Inside the cleanest of clean rooms, a tiny particle was
Japan's priceless asteroid Ryugu sample got 'rapidly colonized' by Earth bacteria
A sample of the asteroid Ryugu returned to Earth by the Hayabusa2 mission was rapidly colonized by terrestrial microorganisms, new research has revealed.
Ryugu asteroid sample rapidly colonized by terrestrial life despite strict contamination control
Panspermia is the hypothesis that life can survive the transfer between planetary bodies as a secondary path for life to get started on planets throughout a solar system. The discovery of extraterrestrial life on asteroids or within meteorites would have profound implications for understanding the origins and distribution of life in the universe.
How Tiny Fragments Unlocked the Hidden 4-Billion-Year History of Asteroid Ryugu
Researchers studied tiny asteroid fragments from Ryugu, revealing that it originated in the outer solar system and evolved ...
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Messenger comets might be why Earth has life, asteroid Ryugu samples suggest
Ryugu, formally known as 162173 Ryugu, is a 2850-foot (870-meter) wide near-Earth asteroid that lacks a protective atmosphere. This means its surface is directly exposed to space and can ...
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Tiny fragments of a 4-billion-year-old asteroid reveal its history
In June 2018, Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission reached asteroid 162173 Ryugu. It studied the asteroid for about 15 months, deploying small rovers and a lander, before gathering a sample and ...
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Illuminating the journey of a 4-billion-year-old asteroid
Microscope image of one of the small fragments of asteroid 162173 Ryugu studied by scientists at the Advanced Photon Source. This fragment is roughly 400 microns in diameter, or about the width ...
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Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid
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.
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Japan sets date for asteroid 'rock grab'
Artwork: Hayabusa2 arrived at the asteroid Ryugu in June last year The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 will attempt to collect a sample of rock from an asteroid on 22 February, the country's ...