The Ryugu asteroid is located approximately 300 million km from Earth. Now an international group of researchers
This evidence was collected by a space probeHayabusa 2 during a mission that began in 2014. Now that Hayabusa 2 has returned samples to Earth, researchers have learned more about this asteroid and pre-solar stardust. Ryugu, like many other asteroids, is composed of gravel-like substances thought to be derived from other asteroids.
The asteroid itself is very massive, and scientists believethat it originated outside of our solar system. Now, the presence of this dust, which formed before the formation of our solar system, could further expand our understanding of where and when Ryugu appeared.
Since the asteroid probe returned itssamples to Earth, scientists around the world began to study them. The research team wanted to determine the age of the samples. They published their findings in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. They note that the samples appear to have come from various stellar processes. But only this pre-solar stardust attracted attention.
Ryugu is not the only celestial object in whichfound substances that existed before our solar system. About 5% of meteorites found on Earth contain grains of dust that existed before it. The dating of some of them reaches 7 billion years. The grains in this dust from Ryugu contain the same identifiers as in meteorites that existed before our solar system.
Therefore, it is likely that there are others on Ryuguparticles that existed before the solar system. It is possible that most of the asteroid is presolar stellar dust. Because it is so far away and the sampling missions take so long, it is difficult to determine the exact composition. The researchers also found evidence of brittle silicate inside Ryugu.
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