ANU astrophysicist and cosmologist Dr. Brad Tucker says samples of an asteroid that landed in South Australia show what was in the solar system when the sun formed.
“So when Hayabusa2 landed on Woomera in December 2020, we were all excited to see what secrets it would have,” he told Sky News Australia.
“This is because it landed on the asteroid Ryugu and Ryugu … it’s a very thick, rocky piece.”
Dr. Tucker said scientists “always believed” that what was on the asteroid was the “leftover pieces of the solar system.”
“By studying them, we can see exactly what was present,” he said.
“So he really told us the exact proportions of the ingredients in our solar system when the sun really formed.”
Dr. Tucker also said there was a three-million-year period of what could have been the asteroid, which is “very accurate,” as it is more than 4.6 billion years old.