Samples collected from asteroid Ryugu appear to hide secrets of the solar system's past, the bombardment that asteroids presently endure as they drift between planets, and perhaps even the blueprints for future asteroid mining missions.
As asteroids explore interplanetary space, they are exposed to high-energy particles jettisoned from the sun in the form of the solar wind as well as small bodies called micrometeoroids. These interplanetary environmental factors can cause "space-weathering" — but they're difficult to see remotely. In fact, meteorites that break away from asteroids endure intense heating as they pass through Earth's atmosphere to reach our planet's surface, which also means such changes are not evident in asteroid samples that make their way here.
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