Ryugu
Asteroid Ryugu Contained Bonus Comet Particles
On December 5th, 2020, Japan's Hayabusa2 mission successfully returned samples it had collected from the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) 162173 Ryugu…
Under Some Conditions, Comets Could Deliver Organic Molecules to Planets
New research shows how comets could deliver the building blocks for life in systems with close-orbiting planets, aiding in the…
Asteroid Ryugu Contains Niacin (aka Vitamin B3)
In December 2020, JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft delivered a pristine sample of otherworldly dust and rock from asteroid Ryugu to Earth.…
Asteroid Ryugu Might Actually Be a Dead Comet
In 2014, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA launched the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to visit asteroid Ryugu. It arrived at the…
OSIRIS-REx Did One Last Close Flyby of Asteroid Bennu. It’s Almost Time to Come Home
After more than two years in orbit around asteroid Bennu, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is ready to come home. It's bringing…
Some of Hayabusa2’s Samples are as Big as a Centimeter
A fireball hurtled across the sky on December 5th – the sample return capsule from the Hayabusa2 asteroid mission by…
Japan’s Hayabusa 2 Probe Drops Off Bits of an Asteroid and Heads for Its Next Target
Japan's Hayabusa 2 probe zoomed past Earth on December 5th and dropped off a capsule containing bits of an asteroid,…
It’s Time for Hayabusa-2 to Come Home
Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is on its way home. The asteroid-visiting, sample-return mission departed asteroid Ryugu (162173 Ryugu) on Wednesday,…
Hayabusa 2 Has Sent its Last Rover to Ryugu
Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission to asteroid Ryugu has reached one of its final milestones, if not its climax. The sample-return…
Asteroid Ryugu is a “Fragile Rubble Pile”
When Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft arrived at asteroid Ryugu in June 2018, it carried four small rovers with it. Hayabusa…