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Ryugu asteroid samples are sprinkled with stardust older than the solar system

These stellar ashes could illuminate the history of the solar system

A photo of a sample of the asteroid Ryugu, small black rocks, in a small circular dish.

Samples of the asteroid Ryugu (pictured) contain bits of stardust created before the solar system was born. That stardust could reveal details of the solar system’s history.

T. Yada et al/Nature 2021

By Lisa Grossman

Samples of the asteroid Ryugu contain bits of stardust that predate the birth of our solar system.

Slivers of Ryugu material, snagged by the Japanese Hayabusa2 spacecraft, appear to come from the solar system’s frozen fringes, rather than from the asteroid itself, scientists report July 14 in Science Advances.