From The Lab: Asteroid shows striking similarities to primitive meteorites

An international team of scientists, including four from France, have analysed rock particles and powder from the asteroid Ryugu which were brought back by the 2014 Japanese probe Hayabusa2. 

This handout photograph shows samples of rock from the asteroid Ryugu. © AFP - Handout

"Our preliminary analysis show that the samples have the same chemical composition as the most primitive meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites, and they have the same composition as the sun," said Frédéric Moynier of Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), one of the researchers involved in the study.

Moynier added they had also found amino acids and complex carbon molecules in the asteroid samples. 

Launched in 2014, the goal of the Hayabusa2 mission was to bring rock samples from the Ryugu asteroid and compare them with meteorites found on Earth. 

"Meteorites are the main source of information we have on the origins of the solar system. However, there has always been a question as to how much the meteorites represent the asteroid samples.

"The goal of the mission was therefore to compare the samples from an asteroid to the most primitive meteorites that date back to the first instants of the formation of solids in the solar system," Moynier said.