First asteroid gas sample delivered by the Hayabusa2 mission: A treasure box from Ryugu.
Ryuji OkazakiYayoi N MiuraYoshinori TakanoHirotaka SawadaKanako SakamotoToru YadaKeita YamadaShinsuke KawagucciYohei MatsuiKo HashizumeAkizumi IshidaMichael W BroadleyBernard MartyDavid J ByrneEvelyn FüriAlex MeshikOlga PravdivtsevaHenner BusemannMy E I RiebeJamie D GilmourJisun ParkKen-Ichi BajoKevin RighterSaburo SakaiShun SekimotoFumio KitajimaSarah A CrowtherNaoyoshi IwataNaoki ShiraiMitsuru EbiharaReika YokochiKunihiko NishiizumiKeisuke NagaoJong Ik LeePatricia ClayAkihiro KanoMarc M CaffeeRyu UemuraMakoto InagakiDaniela KrietschColin MadenMizuki YamamotoLydia FawcettThomas LawtonTomoki NakamuraHiroshi NaraokaTakaaki NoguchiHikaru YabutaHisayoshi YurimotoYuichi TsudaSei'ichiro WatanabeMasanao AbeMasahiko ArakawaAtsushi FujiiMasahiko HayakawaNaoyuki HirataNaru HirataRie HondaChikatoshi HondaSatoshi HosodaYu-Ichi IijimaHitoshi IkedaMasateru IshiguroYoshiaki IshiharaTakahiro IwataKosuke KawaharaShota KikuchiKohei KitazatoKoji MatsumotoMoe MatsuokaTatsuhiro MichikamiYuya MimasuAkira MiuraTomokatsu MorotaSatoru NakazawaNoriyuki NamikiHirotomo NodaRina NoguchiNaoko OgawaKazunori OgawaTatsuaki OkadaChisato OkamotoGo OnoMasanobu OzakiTakanao SaikiNaoya SakataniHiroki SenshuYuri ShimakiKei ShiraiSeiji SugitaYuto TakeiHiroshi TakeuchiSatoshi TanakaEri TatsumiFuyuto TeruiRyudo TsukizakiKoji WadaManabu YamadaTetsuya YamadaYukio YamamotoHajime YanoYasuhiro YokotaKeisuke YoshiharaMakoto YoshikawaKento YoshikawaShizuho FuruyaKentaro HatakedaTasuku HayashiYuya HitomiKazuya KumagaiAkiko MiyazakiAiko NakatoMasahiro NishimuraHiromichi SoejimaAyako I SuzukiDaiki YamamotoKasumi YogataMiwa YoshitakeRyohta FukaiTomohiro UsuiTrevor R IrelandHarold C ConnollyDante S LaurettaShogo TachibanaPublished in: Science advances (2022)
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned to Earth from the asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 6 December 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 3 He/ 4 He and 20 Ne/ 22 Ne ratios, along with some contaminant terrestrial atmospheric gases. A mixture of solar and Earth's atmospheric gas is the best explanation for the container gas composition. Fragmentation of Ryugu grains within the sample container is discussed on the basis of 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.