Since as far back as Ancient Greece, humans have been fascinated by the solar system. However, Japanese researchers have now collected asteroid data that provides insights into the development of the solar system that earlier scientists such as Ptolemy, Galileo, and Copernicus could only have dreamed of.
Asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, launched in 2014, set out for Ryugu, a carbon-rich C-type asteroid. In 2018, it arrived in the area of Ryugu, conducting a number of remote observations and collecting samples from two locations on the asteroid. Before the launch of Hayabusa2, a research team at Osaka University had been developing a non-destructive method of light element analysis utilizing muons to analyze Ryugu.
Comments are closed.