Preliminary analysis of the Hayabusa2 samples returned from C-type asteroid Ryugu - Nature Astronomy

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned 5.4 g of material from the asteroid Ryugu. A first analysis of the samples found an estimated density of 1,282 ± 231 kg m−3, considerably lower than even the most porous meteorites. Together with preliminary spectral analysis, these results indicate that Ryugu is s…