When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A close-up image of asteroid Ryugu. A new analysis of samples from the space rock hints that ...

A year ago, scientists got their first look at material gathered from nearby asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Now the results of those studies have been revealed, and they shed light on the history of our solar ...

Samples taken from the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu continue to provide scientists with important insights, this time about the potential beginnings of life on our planet. Hayabusa2 delivered its ...

Organic matter found in samples of asteroid Ryugu suggests that ancient comets may be responsible for bringing the 'seeds of life' to Earth. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

Panspermia is the hypothesis that life can survive the transfer between planetary bodies as a secondary path for life to get ...

Modern astronomy is giving us unprecedented views of the asteroids, comets, and other small bodies that litter our cosmic ...

Asteroids hold many clues about the formation and evolution of planets and their satellites. Understanding their history can, therefore, reveal much about our solar system. While observations made ...

Last year, researchers excitedly announced that they had found two organic compounds essential for living organisms in samples retrieved from a distant asteroid called Ryugu. The Japanese Space Agency ...

Japan's Hayabusa-2 spacecraft, on a mission to asteroid 162173 Ryugu, will swing fantastically close to Earth tonight, passing only 6,300 miles from the surface. You might even see it in a telescope.

New analysis of Hayabusa2 data of the asteroid Ryugu reveals much of the surface reflects and scatters light in ways that are consistent with studies of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites in the lab.

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 returned to Earth in December 2020 bearing soil samples collected from a nearby asteroid, 162173 Ryugu. Those samples were divided between six scientific teams around ...

Here is an artist’s impression of the size difference between the previous target asteroid for Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission, 162173 Ryugu, and 1998 KY26. Hayabusa2 collected samples from Ryugu in ...