Scientists have found water and organic matter on the surface of an asteroid sample collected from the solar system – the first time such material has been found on an asteroid.
The sample, which was only a single grain, comes from the asteroid ‘Itokawa’ by the Japanese Aviation Reconnaissance Agency (Jaxa)’s first Hayabusa mission in 2010.
It shows both water and organic matter not coming from a strange world, but from the asteroid itself. Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London, suggest that the asteroid evolved over billions of years by incorporating the liquid and organic matter in the same way as the Earth.
The asteroid withstood extreme heat, dehydration and crushing, but managed to be reformed and rehydrated using material it picked up. The study also shows that S-type asteroids – the most common that come to Earth – can contain the raw components of life.
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Image: Public domain