The surprising result was that the asteroid contained a drop of water, scientists said on Friday (9/23/22). Previous analysis has suggested that life on Earth may have originated from outer space, and this new discovery supports that.
“These water droplets have great significance,” scientist Tomoki Nakamura of Tohoku University told reporters before the study was published in the journal Science on Friday.
“Many researchers believe that water was brought (from outer space) but we actually found water on Ryugu, a near-Earth asteroid, for the first time,” Tomoki added.
The findings are part of a recently published study on the analysis of 5.4 grams of rock and dust collected by the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft from the asteroid Ryugu.
The study said the team found a drop of liquid in Ryugu’s sample, “which is carbonated water containing salt and organic matter,” Tomoki said.
Hayabusa-2 was launched in 2014 on its mission to Ryugu and returned to Earth orbit two years ago with a capsule containing the sample. This has produced several insights, including organic matter which suggests that some of the building blocks of life on Earth, amino acids, may have formed in space.
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Scientists believe the latest revelations bolster the theory that asteroids like Ryugu, or its larger parent asteroid, could supply water, which contains salt and organic matter in the event of a collision with Earth.
“We found evidence that this (process) can be directly related to, for example, the origin of the oceans or organic matter on Earth,” Tomoki said.
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