An unprecedented close-up view of the asteroid shows surprisingly familiar rocks

On October 3, 2018, the Hayabusa2 probe dropped a lander toward the surface of the Ryugu asteroid at a height of 135 feet. The lander, MASCOT, struck a rock, bounced back and collapsed on the surface of the asteroid, before stopping upside down in a hole.

But that was not the end for MASCOT. The LG was able to turn around and take incredible pictures of the Ryugu Rocks during its 6-minute descent and 17 hours on the surface before its batteries died. Scientists have published these images, which could have exciting implications. Fascinating, the surface is much like meteorites found on Earth, called carbonaceous chondrites.

"What we have in these images, is really how rocks and materials are distributed on the surface of this asteroid, what is the history of this material, and the geological context," Rolf Jaumann, the first author of the study of the German Aerospace Center, told Gizmodo. "This is the first piece of information about this type of material in its original environment."

The images revealed different types of rocks on the surface of Ryugu, including hollow cauliflower-like sandy rocks and brighter, smoother rocks, all between a few centimeters and a few tens of meters in diameter. But there seemed to be no visible dust – this suggests that there must exist a process to remove the dust, which is either lost in space, or sucked deeper into the air. asteroid. On closer inspection, these rocks seemed to contain shiny parts, inclusions of different materials, according to the document published in Science.

These inclusions are exciting: they seemed bluish and reddish, said Jaumann, and seemed to be similar in size to the inclusions found in the carbonaceous chondrites found on Earth. It's a big problem.

"This is the first time that we have seen something that goes through the atmosphere in museums and laboratories around the world," said Kerri Donaldson Hanna, a global geologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Central Florida is not involved in this study, said Gizmodo. It would be a direct link between the rocks of the Earth and the rocks of space.

But there is still an element of mystery. Neyda Abreu, an associate professor of geoscience and mathematics at Penn State DuBois, told Gizmodo that it was not yet clear which of the many types of Ryugu carbonaceous chondrites would become if she entered the Earth's atmosphere. She hopes to have more data soon, as the actual abundance of inclusions in these rocks. Maybe Ryugu will not match any of the carbon chondrites in our collections. "Having something we have never seen before is always exciting," she said.

This mission is not limited to amazing images. The ultimate goal of Hayabusa2 is to collect material from Ryugu and bring it back to Earth, where scientists can closely study real and essentially unmodified asteroid chunks. And, depending on its composition, Ryugu might contain some of the oldest materials in the solar system, dating back to the time when planets were formed.

Hayabusa2 must return to Earth by the end of next year.