“Dragon Palace” – comet body becomes a cosmic treasure-Information Technology

(LDO)- The treasure that astronomers have “taken good care of” for many years because of its 4.6 billion-year-old life materials – Ryugu – was once a beautiful comet, died of “sublimation”. .

Scientists from Nagoya City University (Japan) have announced the fascinating history of asteroid Ryugu – which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese – a near-Earth asteroid shaped like Big diamond block.

According to Space, the study relies on data collected by Japan’s Hayabusa-2 mission, the most important of which is data on the composition and structure of the asteroid.

Ryugu’s surface taken from a Japanese spacecraft – Photo: JAXA

Previously, Ryugu was identified not as a monolith but as a rubble consisting of many small pieces of rock and solid matter held together by gravity. The observations also show that Ryugu contains significantly high levels of organic matter – which makes it extremely attractive.

Because Ryugu is one of those ancient objects possibly older than the solar system, the organic matter it carries is the building blocks of life similar to what other asteroids and comets have brought to the system. The primordial Sun, from which the Earth resided, went through billions of years of evolution to create us and all species.

Initially, it was suspected that Ryugu was the result of the collision of two asteroids, but scientists in Nagoya proved that it was a comet that had lost all its ice.

A panoramic photo of asteroid Ryugu – Photo: JAXA

Comet Ryugu when it was “alive” was an object born of dust left over when the Solar System formed from the Solar Nebula 4.6 billion years ago. It has traveled from its homeland, the distant, cold region beyond to approach the Sun.

When a comet approaches the Sun, it heats up so rapidly that solid ice sublimes directly into gas. The end result of this moth-like plunge is that the comet itself is exhausted, the “Dragon’s Palace” being pulled down by its own gravity, compacting it into a tiny block of rock.

“The sublimation of the ice causes the comet’s nucleus to lose mass and contract, increasing its rotation speed,” said Associate Professor Hitoshi Miura, a member of the research team, explaining why Ryugu rotates so fast.

Fortunately, when the “Dragon’s Palace” collapsed, the proto-organic substances created in the stellar environment were deposited and perfectly preserved on the debris, giving humans the opportunity to open their wings. window into the past.

The study has just been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.