UTokyo Organization for Planetary Space Science (UTOPS) and Department of Earth and Planetary Science cooperated in the “Asteroid Itokawa and Ryugu Double Sample Exhibition in Nagoya City Science Museum” held from August 6 (Tue) to August 25 (Sun), 2024, at the 5th floor demo space of the Nagoya City Science Museum’s Astronomy Building.
Samples from the asteroid Itokawa, brought back to Earth by the asteroid explorer Hayabusa in June 2010, and samples from the asteroid Ryugu, brought back to Earth by the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 in December 2020, were displayed side by side.
08/25/2024Cooperated in the Special Exhibition of Asteroid Itokawa and Ryugu Samples at Nagoya City Science Museum はコメントを受け付けていませんNews, UTOPS-News Like
On August 5 (Mon.) and 6 (Tue.), 2024, we held an astronomy training for students from Kariya High School in Aichi Prefecture and Matsumoto-Fukashi High School in Nagano Prefecture. The students observed a sample of Ryugu and took a class about results of Hayabusa2 mission. They estimated the distance to galaxies from photographs of galaxies and used the recession speeds of these galaxies to determine the age of the universe.
08/07/2024Held an Astronomy Workshop for High School Students はコメントを受け付けていませんNews, UTOPS-News Like
On Friday, August 2, 2024, students from Komatsu High School in Ishikawa, Japan, visited UTOPS. We gave them a mock lecture about the Hayabusa2 exploration and the rock brought back from the asteroid Ryugu, and showed them around our laboratory.
08/02/2024High school students visited UTOPS はコメントを受け付けていませんNews, UTOPS-News Like
The nano-satellites developed by our laboratory so far and the future of Japanese space development will be introduced on BS Teleto’s “Imakara Science,” which will be broadcast from 10:00 p.m. on the evening of the 17th today. Professor Shinichi Nakasuka will also appear on the program. Please watch the program!
Joint Press Release Shogo Tachibana (Professor, UTOPS, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, ISAS)
An international research group led by Senior Scientist Yoshinori Takano of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Professor Hiroshi Naraoka of Kyushu University, and Principal Investigator Jason Dworkin of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), along with researchers from Keio University, Human Metabolome Technologies, Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, Hiroshima University, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo, extracted soluble components in samples from the asteroid Ryugu and performed precise chemical analysis. A total of 84 diverse organic acids (including newly discovered monocarboxylic, dicarboxylic, tricarboxylic, and hydroxy acids) and nitrogen-containing compounds with a high affinity for water were identified, providing conclusive evidence for the current state of chemical evolution and water quality metamorphism (Figure). These include oxalic acid, citric acid, malic acid, pyruvic acid, pyruvic acid, lactic acid, mevalonic acid, and others, as well as a group of alkylurea molecules, an organic-inorganic complex, revealing the origin of chemical evolution dominated only by physical and chemical factors. We then summarized the light element composition (carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur) and organic material science properties, including stable isotope composition, molecular composition, and content, of the organic matter at the two touchdown sampling sites.
These results provide primary information on the chemical evolution of the early solar system and are important for understanding the larger scientific inquiry into how non-living organic molecules led to the evolutionary processes that ultimately led to the emergence of life.
This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Grant-in-Aid for International Cooperative Research Enhancement, Project No. 21KK0062), the Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University Joint Project, and other research grants.
The results were published in the scientific journal Nature Communications on July 10, 2024 (18:00 JST).
Figure Scroll showing the source of water-rich chemical evolution and evidence of water metamorphism on the asteroid Ryugu: a wide variety of evolutionary events including raw materials for amino acids and nucleobases.
Asteroid Ryugu was once a parent body rich in water (H2O) and has been repeatedly frozen/thawed during its evolution in the solar system. By analyzing soluble components with high precision, we found conclusive evidence of “aqueous alteration” recorded in hydrophilic organic molecules. A total of 84 new species (including structural isomers) of organic acids (65 newly identified species including oxalic acid, malonic acid, citric acid, malic acid, pyruvic acid, lactic acid, and mevalonic acid) and nitrogen-containing molecules (19 new organic-inorganic complexes including alkylureas) with high affinity to water were discovered. It is believed that the primary molecular evolution involving water-organic-mineral interactions is still underway.
For more information, please refer to the following
07/10/2024[Press Release] Sources of water-rich chemical evolution and evidence of aqueous alteration on asteroid Ryugu –Discovery of precursor of amino acids and nucleobases– はコメントを受け付けていませんNews, UTOPS-News Like
Professor Nicolas Dauphas, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, visited UTOPS and gave a lecture “The origin and evolution of the Moon” from a cosmochemical perspective.
esse-sense Academic Talk (The Yaesu Lighthouse Discussion Group) is a forum for businesspeople, community leaders, and others to think about the future together while gaining insight into the knowledge and perspectives of researchers. At the 5th meeting (held on May 21, 2024), Professor Tachibana introduced what was learned from the analysis of samples from the asteroid “Ryugu” brought back by the space probe “Hayabusa2” and the origin and evolution of the solar system as told by “rocks”.
During the lecture, Professor Tachibana explained with a replica of the container in which the Ryugu samples were brought back to Earth, showed videos and photos of real research sites, and talked about the latest research results. He talked with a twinkle in his eye, and the participants were increasingly listened to him with great interest.
After the lecture was over, the audience and online participants asked questions one after another, and Professor Tachibana answered each question closely. We were very glad that some elementary school students questioned and some people asked again and again. 30 minutes have passed in an instant, the Q&A session filled with the enthusiasm of everyone, including Professor Tachibana.
We want to broaden researches and educations of earth and planetary science through such discussion and to inform people about the fund to support the researches and educations of earth and planetary science.
“esse-sense Academic Talk (Yaesu Lighthouse Discussion)” was held in collaboration with Essence Inc. and the University of Tokyo URA.
Cooperated by NPO Miratuku
Co-organized by Mitsui Fudosan POTLUCK YAESU
05/21/2024Professor Tachibana spoke at “esse-sense Academic Talk vol.5” connecting research “knowledge” and society はコメントを受け付けていませんNews, UTOPS-News Like
Dr. Guy Libourel, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Nice, visited UTOPS and gave a lecture “From Asteroid to Earth: The first results of the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission”.
He talked about the latest results on the mineralogy and petrology of samples retrieved from the asteroid Bennu.
