Near-Earth Asteroid’s Unusual Feature Baffles Scientists

Researchers made a surprising discovery after analyzing the images of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. According to the researchers, an unseen force seems to be affecting the surface of the asteroid.

In October last year, the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft from Japan deployed a lander known as Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) on the surface Ryugu. Using a specialized camera dubbed as MASCam, MASCOT took detailed images of the asteroid’s surface.

Recently, a team of scientists came across a strange discovery after analyzing the images taken by MASCOT. Despite being an asteroid with a rocky exterior, the researchers were not able to detect dust on Ryugu.

“We present images from the MASCOT camera taken during the descent and while on the surface,” the researchers wrote in the abstract of their study, which was published in the journal Science.

“The surface is covered by decimeter to meter-sized rocks, with no deposits of fine-grained material,” the researchers added.

The researchers noted that the absence of dust is very unusual for asteroids since the constant formation of fine-grained particles is expected due to exposure space conditions.

This led the researchers to believe that an unseen could be affecting the surface conditions of Ryugu. In their study, they speculated that factors such as impacts from other cosmic material or seismic activity on the asteroid may have been removing the dust on Ryugu’s surface.

“One explanation could be the charging of fine dust particles due to solar radiation and their subsequent removal via electrical forces,” Ralf Jaumann, the lead author of the study said according to CNET.

“It is also possible that out-gassing of volatiles could have removed the dust or that shaking within the asteroid could move preferentially small particles into the interior,” he added.

Aside from the lack of dust, the researchers also noticed that the rocks on Ryugu closely resembled the meteorites that crash down on Earth. They noted that once the meteorites passed through the planet’s atmosphere, they were slightly altered.

For the researchers, this finding could provide a deeper understanding regarding the involvement of cosmic rocks in the formation of the planet.