Incredible footage reveals something unusually familiar with the rocks of the Ryugu asteroid



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The rocks at the surface of Ryugu, the far-distant asteroid currently explored by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa-2, have a striking resemblance to the rocks of meteors that crashed on Earth.

It's according to a team of European and Japanese scientists who have analyzed recently published photos that MASCOT, the Hayabusa-2 robotic lander, took off from the surface of the asteroid in October 2018, reports Gizmodo.

Since the asteroid is believed to contain materials dating back to the early days of our solar system, the astonishingly dustless similarity of this asteroid to the rocks found on Earth could have enormous implications for understanding the past of our planet.

Some of the rocks resemble carbonaceous chondrite meteors that were discovered after a land-based earthquake, according to research from the team, published in the newspaper Science Friday.

Carbonaceous chondrites are among the oldest known rocks in the solar system, but the samples here on Earth have been altered as they passed through the atmosphere.

When Hayabusa-2 brings back samples to Earth, scientists will finally have the opportunity to study space rocks in their original form.

"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 its alterations, and the geological context," he said. told Gizmodo Rolf Jaumann of the German Aerospace Center.

"This is the first information on this type of material in its original environment."

This article was originally published by Futurism. Read the original article.

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