Hayabusa2 and Ryugu’s rendezvous with Earth
Hayabusa2 (Peregrine Falcon 2 in Japanese) is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese state space agency (JAXA) [1]. It rendezvouses with Ryugu on 27 June 2018, surveyed for one year and a half then took samples. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and returned the samples to Earth on 5 December 2020 UTC. Its mission has now been extended to 2031 when it will rendezvous with 1998 KY26.
After samples returned to Earth, scientists started to work on them and papers started being published about them. Such as an article about soluble organic molecules in samples of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu by Naraoka et al [2]. Organic molecules are found in the asteroid. Amino acids such as valine were also found in the Ryugu which was very surprising. I will explain them in another article. This will be the sequence of an article which I will talk about Hayabusa2 and its findings from asteroid Ryugu.
162173 Ryugu is a near-Earth object and a potentially hazardous asteroid. It is located between Earth and Sun. These asteroids called Apollo asteroid. Their location can be seen as green area in the Figure 2.
After samples were analyzed, it is found that Ryugu samples contain fragments of rock that are dominated by clay-like minerals, such as serpentine and saponite, as well as carbonates, sulfides, and magnetite [3]. In order to create minerals, an oxidizer must be needed. Oxidizer is water in the early stages. With water, minerals within the parent asteroid were formed.
Ryugu samples date back to the birth of the solar system. Some 4.565 billion years ago.
Scientists found that [3] Ryugu would be classified as Ivuna-like (CI) chondrite type 2 asteroid if it has fallen to Earth rather than coming with a spacecraft. Ivuna is the location in Tanzania where the prototype of this class of meteorite was recovered in 1938 [3].
These missions will pave the way for future gathering missions such as OSIRIS-REx. OSIRIS-REx will go to asteroid Bennu and collect samples.
References
[1] “Hayabusa 2 — Vikipedi.” https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa_2 (accessed Feb. 25, 2023).
[2] “Apollo asteroid — Wikipedia.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_asteroid (accessed Feb. 25, 2023).
[3] “Analyzing asteroid Ryugu | Science.” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade4188 (accessed Feb. 25, 2023).
