Ryugu, formally known as 162173 Ryugu, is a 2850-foot (870-meter) wide near-Earth asteroid that lacks a protective atmosphere. This means its surface is directly exposed to space and can gather ...

See multiple views from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft's touching down on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/U. Tokyo/Kochi ...

Imperial College London scientists say microbes on asteroid samples from Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission have down to Earth ...

Researchers studied tiny asteroid fragments from Ryugu, revealing that it originated in the outer solar system and evolved ...

Panspermia is the hypothesis that life can survive the transfer between planetary bodies as a secondary path for life to get ...

The salt crystals, consisting of rock salt, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulfate, are crucial for understanding the evolution ...

Scientists have found microorganisms crawling over a sample retrieved from the 200 million-mile-distant asteroid Ryugu. But ...

Last year, researchers excitedly announced that they had found two organic compounds essential for living organisms in ...

A recent discovery made by scientists working with a sample of rock from outer space highlights one of the huge challenges ...

"The fact that terrestrial microbes are the Earth's best colonizers means we can never completely discount terrestrial ...

A team of researchers led by Matthew Genge at Imperial College London confirmed that the asteroid has organic molecules; it confirmed that the samples actually have signs of life — but this life doesn ...

A Ryugu asteroid sample has been found contaminated by terrestrial microbes, raising questions about planetary protection.