Quite a lot has been going on:
Asteroid chips that look like charcoal sent back to Earth by Japanese space
Tokyo — They resemble small fragments of charcoal, but the soil samples collected from an asteroid and returned to Earth by a Japanese spacecraft were hardly disappointing.
The samples Japanese space officials described Thursday are as big as 0.4 inch and rock hard, not breaking when picked up or poured into another container. Smaller black, sandy granules the spacecraft collected and returned separately were described last week.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft got the two sets of samples last year from two locations on the asteroid Ryugu, more than 190 million miles from Earth. It dropped them from space onto a target in the Australian Outback, and the samples were brought to Japan in early December.
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Why should we explore asteroids? | Deccan Herald
Recently, Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft returned with soil samples from an asteroid called Ryugu. Previously in 2010 its predecessor mission visited another asteroid called Itokawa and scooped up some surface dust. Meanwhile, Nasa's OSIRIS-Rex is targeting another asteroid called Bennu.
Why are space agencies investing millions in exploring asteroids? It turns out there are strong reasons. In the primitive stages, when the solar system was being born, a giant disc swirled around the solar nebula carrying with its gases, dust and rocks. The rocks collided and fused forming planets, yet others became their moons. The remaining rocks crashed and broke into smaller irregularly-shaped bits. Asteroids are these leftover bits of the rocks.
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Asteroid explorer collects first samples thought to be rich in organic compounds; a Purdue
Note to journalists : Photographs of Michelle Thompson with previous asteroid samples are available via a Google Drive folder . Journalists visiting campus should follow visitor health guidelines .
Thompson holds a sample of a carbonaceous meteorite which may have similarities to material returned by the Hayabusa2 mission. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A fireball lit up the Australian sky in the first week of December, as Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer sent a capsule containing pieces of nearby asteroid Ryugu down to the Earth’s surface.
Meteoric Evidence Found for a Previously Unknown Asteroid
SwRI scientists studied the composition of a small shard of a meteoroid to determine that it likely originated from a previously unknown parent asteroid. This false-color micrograph of the meteoroid sample shows the unexpected amphibole crystals identified in orange. Credit: NASA/USRA/Lunar and Planetary Institute
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A Southwest Research Institute-led team of scientists has identified a potentially new meteorite parent asteroid by studying a small shard of a meteorite that arrived on Earth a dozen years ago. The composition of a piece of the meteorite Almahata Sitta (AhS) indicates that its parent body was an asteroid roughly the size of Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and formed in the presence of water under intermediate temperatures and pressures.
Asteroid That Blew up in Earth's Atmosphere in 2008 Was From a Much Bigger Rock That
Researchers in the US have found that the asteroid named 2008 TC3 that exploded in the atmosphere of the Earth in 2008 was part of a space rock that contained water.
The new discovery was made when researchers analysed a fragment of Almahata Sitta meteorite, reported Daily Mail. These meteorites were named after the location where they exploded.
Researchers have found an amphibole crystal in this fragment of an asteroid. Amphiboles have hydroxyl groups that can remain stable only in the presence of water. Based on the presence of a kind of amphibole crystal, it has been found that due to intermediate temperature and pressure, this parent asteroid formed in the presence of water.
'The Expanse' Reveals What Happens With Those Asteroids (RECAP) - TV Insider
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Expanse Season 5, Episode 4, "Gaugamela."]
History buffs will certainly recognize the title of this episode: the Battle of Gaugamela marked Alexander the Great's decisive victory over the Persian Empire. And, perhaps like Alexander, Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) has also won what he sees as a monumental victory for Belters everywhere, as three asteroids strike Earth and cause irreparable damage to the "Inners."
Happening on Twitter
The #Hayabusa2 @haya2e_jaxa spacecraft continues to reveal the samples it collected from asteroid #Ryugu. Much larg… https://t.co/IVx3kGq2YL CanberraDSN (from Canberra, Australia) Thu Dec 24 05:20:12 +0000 2020
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