Ryugu, formally known as 162173 Ryugu, is a 2850-foot (870-meter) wide near-Earth asteroid that lacks a protective atmosphere. This means its surface is directly exposed to space and can ...

Researchers studied tiny asteroid fragments from Ryugu, revealing that it originated in the outer solar system and evolved ...

See multiple views from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft's touching down on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/U. Tokyo/Kochi ...

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

The salt crystals, consisting of rock salt, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulfate, are crucial for understanding the evolution ...

Last year, researchers excitedly announced that they had found two organic compounds essential for living organisms in ...

A recent discovery made by scientists working with a sample of rock from outer space highlights one of the huge challenges ...

"The fact that terrestrial microbes are the Earth's best colonizers means we can never completely discount terrestrial ...

In June 2018, Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission reached asteroid 162173 Ryugu. It studied the asteroid for about 15 months, deploying small rovers and a lander, before gathering a sample and ...