The world’s first gas sample from deep space returned from Hayabusa 2 with asteroid Ryugu material

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JXA) Confirmed that the gas collected from the sample container inside the re-entry capsule of the asteroid Explorer Hibusa 2 is a gas sample emitted from the asteroid Ryugu.

The results of the mass spectrometry of the gas collected inside the sample container at the QLF (Quick Look Facility) set up at the Woomera local headquarters in Australia on December 7, 2020 indicated that the gas differs from the Earth’s atmospheric composition. For additional confirmation, a similar analysis was performed on December 10-11 at the Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center on the JXA Sagamihara Campus. This led to the conclusion that the gas in the sample container was taken from the asteroid Ryugu.

This decision-making ground is due to the following three points.

• Gas analysis at the Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center and Wummera Local Headquarters in Australia yielded the same result.
• The sample container is sealed with an aluminum metal seal and the position of the container is designed as if the inclusion of the Earth’s atmosphere during the mission was kept below the allowable level.
• Since it was confirmed at the Sagamihara campus that a similar composition of gas was produced even after the container gas was extracted in Australia, it is believed that the collected gas must have been due to weakening from the sample.

This is the return of the world’s first sample of matter in the state of gas from deep space.

The preliminary analysis team will continue with the opening of the sample container and detailed analysis of the molecular and isotopic composition of the collected gas.