Exploration

Ryugu Samples at Cité de l’espace

Published on 24 October 2023

Cité de l'espace in Toulouse presents to the public two samples taken from the asteroid Ryugu and brought back to Earth by the Japanese probe Hayabusa2. They are evidence of the formation of our Solar System.

From 2014 to 2020, the Japanese space agency JAXA successfully carried out a mission to bring back samples taken from an asteroid, Ryugu.
After three and a half years of travel, the Hayabusa2 probe positioned itself around this 900-m wide small celestial body on June 27, 2018. Like all asteroids, it is a “leftover” of the process of the formation of planets.

RYUGU, AN ASTEROID VISITED BY A PEREGRINE FALCON

EVIDENCE OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM IN TOULOUSE

A SETTING FOR SAMPLES AT THE CITÉ DE L’ESPACE

In video: Haybusa 2, the feat

RYUGU, AN ASTEROID VISITED BY A PEREGRINE FALCON

In Japanese, Hayabusa means “Peregrine Falcon”, a raptor renowned for its swooping attacks. The image is well chosen, because the Hayabusa2 probe has twice completed a (careful) descent towards Ryugu in order to take samples from its surface on February 21 and July 11, 2019. The distance between Earth and the asteroid prevents any real-time remote control, so the Japanese machine carried out its manoeuvres and other tasks automatically. Hayabusa2 also released several small robots tasked with exploring the surface of Ryugu, including the Franco-German MASCOT lander (Mobile Asteroid surface SCOUT) of 10 kg, developed by CNES and DLR. Returning close to Earth on December 6, 2020, Hayabusa2 ejected a capsule containing its precious cargo (5.4 grammes of Ryugu) which was recovered in Australia.

Artist’s image showing Hayabusa2 collecting samples on Ryugu. Inset on the left, the 900 m wide asteroid Ryugu photographed by the Japanese probe.
© JAXA/ISAS

Arrival of the Ryugu samples at Cité de l’espace, protected in a transport case. From left to right: Aude Lesty (Exhibitions and Heritage Manager at Cité de l’espace), Elisabeth Tasker (Associate Professor at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at JAXA) and Églantine Lelong (Museographer at Cité de l’espace).

EVIDENCE OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM IN TOULOUSE

Now a piece of Ryugu is coming to Toulouse to be displayed to as many people as possible! Indeed, from September 9, Cité de l’espace in Toulouse will present to its visitors two samples of the asteroid brought back by Hayabusa2. These are real evidence of the conditions that reigned at the beginning of our Solar System. These millimetre-sized grains are shown with magnifying devices allowing their details to be examined. The sample labelled A0308 comes from the first harvest on February 21, 2019 carried out on the surface of Ryugu. The second sample, called C0124, benefited from an original sampling method. Hayabusa2 released an impactor on April 5, 2019 which made a 10-m wide crater on the asteroid. The second collection of samples from July 11, 2019 being carried out within this crater, the grain that you will see comes from elements revealed when the crater was made and therefore in theory less adulterated.

A SETTING FOR SAMPLES AT THE CITÉ DE L’ESPACE

A place has been made for the two Ryugu samples at the Quai du Système Solaire on the first floor of the exhibitions area. Visitors can discover the first, with a diameter of 1.9 mm and 2.1 mg under an electron microscope. The second can be observed with the naked eye in its transport box in nitrogen. The exhibition is complemented by models:

of the Franco-German Mascot lander, life-size, which made it possible to analyse the soil of the asteroid Ryugu, loaned by CNES;
of the Hayabusa 2 probe on a 1:6 scale, also on loan from CNES;
of the asteroid Ryugu on a scale of 1:2000 allowing people to feel the contours of the heavenly body and the two sampling sites to be identified.