In June 2018, Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission successfully reached asteroid 162173 Ryugu, conducting research for approximately 15 months before returning a sample to Earth in December 2020.

Ryugu was selected for the mission due to its classification as a primitive, carbon-rich Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA), making it accessible for study and likely to contain organic materials relevant to the early solar system.

The returned sample, weighing about 5.4 grams, contains some of the solar system's oldest and most primitive material, dating back around 4.6 billion years.

Research findings indicate that Ryugu is rich in organic matter and contains water-bearing minerals, suggesting it may have delivered essential materials for life to Earth.

The discovery of organic matter in the sample supports theories that asteroids may have contributed these materials to Earth, along with evidence of past water presence.

Ryugu's structure and composition could provide insights into the formation of planets and the delivery of essential materials for life on Earth.

Ryugu was formed from debris following a catastrophic collision of its parent body, which occurred about 1 billion years ago, with Ryugu now existing as a rubble pile of material from different depths of the parent body.

The parent body of Ryugu likely formed 1.8 to 2.9 million years after the Solar System's origin, primarily composed of ice and located beyond the H2O and CO2 snow lines.

Scientists utilized the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory to analyze Ryugu's chemical characteristics using X-ray techniques, including Mössbauer spectroscopy to assess iron oxidation rates.

The research team aimed to answer several questions regarding Ryugu's parent body's formation, original mineralogy, chemical evolution, and ejection history.

The 2022 research paper, titled 'Formation and evolution of carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu: Direct evidence from returned samples,' was led by Tetsuya Nakamura of Tohoku University and published in the journal Science.

Hayabusa 2 is currently on an extended mission, set to perform a fly-by of asteroid 98943 Torifune in 2026 and rendezvous with 1998 KY26 in 2031, contributing further to our understanding of asteroids.