Samples from the Dragon Palace – the ancient asteroid that the Japanese Hayabusa 2 spacecraft approached – shed new light on the history of the Earth and of the solar system as a whole.
According to SciTech Daily , scientists from the Paris Institute of Geophysics have identified new isotopic signatures from a sample of the asteroid Ryugu – named after the Dragon Palace in Japanese mythology.
Hayabusa 2 and the historic landing at “Dragon Palace” – Photo: JAXA
These isotopes reveal that Ryugu’s composition is close to that of the Ivuna-like carbonaceous chondrites (CI); At the same time, the asteroid’s material is similar to that from the outer solar system (the area from Jupiter onwards), which makes up 5-6% of the Earth’s mass.
The results, just published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy , take a big step forward in unraveling what makes up the Earth and other bodies in the solar system.
The space rocks CI and Ryugu belong to being the most primitive asteroids and meteorites in existence, thought to have a composition corresponding to the most primitive solar system. Previous studies have not confirmed Ryugu as CI, because of the problems associated with several isotopes.
This is quite a problem because most meteorites that land on Earth – including CI prototypes – can be slightly contaminated on the way.
But this study, published on December 12, proves that the ratios of two important isotopes, copper and zinc, in Ryugu match perfectly with CI and are different from other space rocks.
As such, its zinc isotope composition can be used to study the accretion of moderately volatile elements on Earth, because its constituent material is certainly part of the planet’s body. our spirit.
This study also determined that 5% of the Earth is made up of the very things that make up the “Dragon’s Palace”.
Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft successfully approached Ryugu in June 2018 and successfully returned to Earth a sample from this ancient asteroid, which contains the most primitive components of the solar system.
The Ryugu sample has been subdivided for many groups of scientists around the world to study together with the common goal of unraveling the mystery of the origin and formation of the world we belong to. This new study once again proves that what the Japanese brought back from the “Dragon Palace” is a priceless treasure of the astronomical world.
Source: cauchuyenls.com
