Post by Soner Güngen (@ soner)
Japan's asteroid-smashing probe reveals a surprisingly young space rock
The carbon-rich asteroid Ryugu may have come together just 10 million years or so ago. A cannonball that a Japanese spacecraft fired at an asteroid is shedding light on the most common type of asteroid in the solar system, a new study reports.
The carbon-rich asteroid Ryugu may have come together just 10 million years or so ago. A cannonball that a Japanese spacecraft fired at an asteroid is shedding light on the most common type of asteroid in the solar system, a new study reports. Carbonaceous, or C-type, space rocks make up about three-quarters of known asteroids.
Previous research suggests that they are relics of the early solar system that contain troves of primordial material from the nebula that gave birth to the sun and its planets about 4.6 billion years ago. This makes research into these carbon-rich asteroids essential to understanding planetary formation.
To learn more about C-type asteroids, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) deployed the spacecraft Hayabusa2 to Ryugu, a 2,790-foot-wide (850 meters) near-Earth asteroid that is one of the darkest celestial bodies in the solar system. The C-type asteroid's name, which means "dragon palace," refers to a magical underwater castle from a Japanese folk tale.
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Link: http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/
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