First asteroid gas sample delivered by the Hayabusa2 mission: A treasure box from Ryugu

Ryuji Okazaki, Yayoi N Miura, Yoshinori Takano, Hirotaka Sawada, Kanako Sakamoto, Toru Yada, Keita Yamada, Shinsuke Kawagucci, Yohei Matsui, Ko Hashizume, Akizumi Ishida, Michael W Broadley, Bernard Marty, David Byrne, Evelyn Füri, Alex Meshik, Olga Pravdivtseva, Henner Busemann, My E I Riebe, Jamie GilmourJisun Park, Ken-Ichi Bajo, Kevin Righter, Saburo Sakai, Shun Sekimoto, Fumio Kitajima, Sarah A Crowther, Naoyoshi Iwata, Naoki Shirai, Mitsuru Ebihara, Reika Yokochi, Kunihiko Nishiizumi, Keisuke Nagao, Jong Ik Lee, Patricia Clay, Akihiro Kano, Marc W Caffee, Ryu Uemura, Makoto Inagaki, Daniela Krietsch, Colin Maden, Mizuki Yamamoto, Lydia Fawcett, Thomas Lawton, Tomoki Nakamura, Hiroshi Naraoka, Takaaki Noguchi, Hikaru Yabuta, Hisayoshi Yurimoto, Yuichi Tsuda, Sei-Ichiro Watanabe, Masanao Abe, Masahiko Arakawa, Atsushi Fujii, Masahiko Hayakawa, Naoyuki Hirata, Naru Hirata, Rie Honda, Chikatoshi Honda, Satoshi Hosoda, Yu-Ichi Iijima, Hitoshi Ikeda, Masateru Ishiguro, Yoshiaki Ishihara, Takahiro Iwata, Kosuke Kawahara, Shota Kikuchi, Kohei Kitazato, Koji Matsumoto, Moe Matsuoka, Tatsuhiro Michikami, Yuya Mimasu, Akira Miura, Tomokatsu Morota, Satoru Nakazawa, Noriyuki Namiki, Hirotomo Noda, Rina Noguchi, Naoko Ogawa, Kazunori Ogawa, Tatsuaki Okada, Chisato Okamoto, Go Ono, Masanobu Ozaki, Takanao Saiki, Naoya Sakatani, Hiroki Senshu, Yuri Shimaki, Kei Shirai, Seiji Sugita, Yuto Takei, Hiroshi Takeuchi, Satoshi Tanaka, Eri Tatsumi, Fuyuto Terui, Ryudo Tsukizaki, Koji Wada, Manabu Yamada, Tetsuya Yamada, Yukio Yamamoto, Hajime Yano, Yasuhiro Yokota, Keisuke Yoshihara, Makoto Yoshikawa, Kent Yoshikawa, Shizuho Furuya, Kentaro Hatakeda, Tasuku Hayashi, Yuya Hitomi, Kazuya Kumagai, Akiko Miyazaki, Aiko Nakato, Masahiro Nishimura, Hiromichi Soejima, Ayako Iwamae, Daiki Yamamoto, Kasumi Yogata, Miwa Yoshitake, Ryota Fukai, Tomohiro Usui, Trevor Ireland, Harold C Connolly, Dante S Lauretta, Shogo Tachibana

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned to Earth from the asteroid 162173 Ryugu on December 6, 2020. One day after the recovery, the gas species retained in the sample container were extracted and measured on-site, and stored in gas collection bottles. The container gas consists of helium and neon with an extraterrestrial 3He/4He and 20Ne/22Ne ratios, along with some contaminant terrestrial atmospheric gases. A mixture of solar and Earth's atmospheric gas is the best explanation of the container gas composition. Fragmentation of Ryugu grains within the sample container is discussed based on the estimated amount of indigenous He and the size distribution of the recovered Ryugu grains. This is the first successful return of gas species from a near-Earth asteroid.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)eabo7239
JournalScience Advances
Early online date20 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Manchester Environmental Research Institute

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