Japanese ship brought back to Earth 'dark matter' containing the germ of life?

A dark matter that is very dark despite being illuminated by light, porous and has properties similar to clay recently brought back from Ryugu, the celestial body that is expected to explain the origin of Earth and life.

The JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) Hayabusa-2 mission has brought back to Earth a real treasure: a strange specimen of matter, which reflects only 2% of the light that is hit, making it almost darker than any other object. any substance on Earth.

According to Dr. Tory Yada from JAXA's Institute of Space Science and Astronautics, one of the scientists involved in the analysis of "dark matter", it has a high porosity, up to 46%, greater than any other. any meteorite ever studied.

Specimen of special dark matter from Ryugu

Meanwhile, Dr. Cédric Pilorget from the Spatiale Institute for Astrophysics (University of Paris - Saclay, France), co-author, said that they have determined the sample composition using a special microscope that can obtain images. at different wavelengths of light in the visible and infrared spectra.

According to Sci-News, the team determined that what essentially made up the specimen was a hydrated, clay-like substrate with various forms of organic matter "embedded" in it. Some of the individual parts are attached to the specimen with other matter such as carbonate or volatile matter.

This shows that Ryugu's microstructure is heterogeneous: it is a much more complex celestial body than previously thought. Primarily it is still a carbon chondrite meteorite, but darker, more porous, more fragile.

This is a very interesting discovery because Ryugu is an ancient asteroid, dating back to the very beginning of the solar system. Its composition may reflect the basic materials that make up the planets, as well as the organic matter in it, which may be the first seeds for life on Earth.

Ryugu gets its name from the Dragon Palace, an aquarium in Japanese folklore. It is a C-type near-Earth asteroid, discovered in May 1999. Ryugu is about 900 meters in diameter and orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit of 474 days, from 0.96 to 141 astronomical units from the Sun (1 astronomical unit equals the distance from the Sun to Earth).