Further evidence that the chemical molecules that formed the basis of life on Earth were brought here by extinct comets has been revealed by extensive investigation of materials from the asteroid Ryugu.
In 2018, the space rock Ryugu, shaped like a spinning top, was reached by Japan’s Hayabusa2 expedition. These space rock samples were returned by it. According to Live Science, the surface material that Hayabusa2 gathered and examined for nearly eighteen months on the asteroid has revealed a wealth of information about Earth.
Ryugu, a near-Earth asteroid that was formerly known as 162173 Ryugu, is 2850 feet (870 meters) broad and lacks an atmosphere to shield it.
This suggests that because an asteroid is exposed to space right away after impact, the interplanetary dust it gathers may change the asteroid’s surface makeup.
Scientists searching for the first indications of life on Earth found “melt splashes” with a width of five to twenty micrometers. It was cometary dust that struck Ryugu’s surface that precisely created these splashes. Furthermore, among these melt droplets, the researchers found small carbonaceous components that bore resemblance to early organic matter.
Team member Megumi Matsumoto, an assistant professor at Tohoku University Graduate School of Science, said in a release, “This organic matter might be the small seeds of life once delivered from space to Earth.”
Because comets frequently have large orbits around the sun, they spend the majority of their existence in the frigid outer regions of the solar system. When they do make it to the inner solar system, however, solar radiation heats their interior, frozen substance. As a result, the material sublimates, turning it into a gas right away.
When this gaseous material bursts off the comet, some of its surface material is taken away. Not only does this give comets their characteristic tails and auras, or “comas,” but it also creates cometary dust trails that surround the sun. When Earth passes through these tracks, we witness meteor shows as the dust particles burn up in the atmosphere.
