Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scientists Uncover Ancient Salt Deposits on Asteroid Ryugu – Was There Water?
Scitech Daily ^ | February 19, 2025 | Kyoto University

Posted on 02/19/2025 6:03:49 AM PST by Red Badger

Colorized microscopic image of sodium carbonate deposit on Ryugu sample. Credit: KyotoU/Toru Matsumoto

==============================================================================

Deposits Found on a Nearby Asteroid Point to Salty Water in the Outer Solar System

Scientists have uncovered salt minerals in samples from asteroid Ryugu, pointing to a past with liquid water. The presence of these salts suggests that Ryugu’s parent body once hosted a warm, saline environment before the water vanished. This discovery could help us understand the role of water in shaping planets and moons across the Solar System.

Ryugu’s Salty Secret: What Scientists Found

Asteroids that pass near Earth often spark concern about potential collisions, no matter how unlikely. However, their proximity also presents valuable opportunities to study the universe. One such asteroid, Ryugu, measuring about 900 meters across and part of the Apollo group, has recently provided new insights into the search for life’s building blocks beyond Earth.

Researchers from Kyoto University have discovered salt minerals in samples collected from Ryugu during Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission. These deposits, which include sodium carbonate, halite, and sodium sulfates, suggest that liquid saltwater once existed within Ryugu’s parent body.

Preserving Clues from Space

Before analyzing the samples, scientists suspected that Ryugu might contain compounds not typically found in meteorites. They anticipated the presence of highly water-soluble materials that would react quickly with Earth’s moisture, making them difficult to detect unless studied in their original, space-preserved state.

“Careful handling allowed us to identify the delicate salt minerals, providing a unique glimpse into Ryugu’s chemical history,” says corresponding researcher Toru Matsumoto.

Ryugu’s Past: A Watery Beginning?

Experts believe the asteroid was once part of a larger parent body that existed about 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after the formation of the solar system. This parent body would have been heated by radioactive decay, creating an environment of hot water below 100°C. While Ryugu and its grains did not contain any moisture, questions remain about how the liquid water was lost.

The Vanishing Act: How Did Water Disappear?

“These crystals tell us how liquid water disappeared from Ryugu’s parent body,” says Matsumoto. The salt crystals dissolve easily in water, suggesting that they could only have precipitated within highly saline water and in conditions with a limited amount of liquid.

“We hypothesized that as fractures exposed the saltwater to space or as the parent body cooled, this liquid could have either evaporated or frozen,” Matsumoto explains. “The salt minerals we’ve found are the crystallized remnants of that water.”

Comparing Ryugu to Other Icy Worlds

The deposits could prove crucial in comparing the evolved water in the dwarf planet Ceres – located in the Asteroid Belt – and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, since researchers believe these icy bodies harbor subsurface oceans or liquid reservoirs. They expect sodium carbonates and halite will be found in surface deposits on Ceres, in water plumes from Saturn’s satellite Enceladus, and on the surfaces of Jupiter’s satellites Europa and Ganymede.

A New Key to Planetary Evolution

Since salt production is closely linked to the geological settings and brine chemistry in these aqueous bodies, the discovery of sodium salts in the Ryugu samples provide new insights for comparing the role that water has played in the development of planets and moons in the outer Solar System.

Reference:

“Sodium carbonates on Ryugu as evidence of highly saline water in the outer Solar System”

by Toru Matsumoto, Takaaki Noguchi, Akira Miyake, Yohei Igami, Megumi Matsumoto, Toru Yada, Masayuki Uesugi, Masahiro Yasutake, Kentaro Uesugi, Akihisa Takeuchi, Hayato Yuzawa, Takuji Ohigashi and Tohru Araki, 18 November 2024, Nature Astronomy.

DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02418-1


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Outdoors; Science; UFO's
KEYWORDS: asteroid; asteroids; astronomy; catastrophism; notaboutufos; ryugu; saturn; science; sodiumcarbonate
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 02/19/2025 6:03:50 AM PST by Red Badger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Carbonate? Wasn’t that used to freeze Han Solo? They should look for a body in there.


2 posted on 02/19/2025 6:09:05 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

Under that salt, could be a long-dead vast evil city. Due to all the corruption and fornications, long since turned to salt.


3 posted on 02/19/2025 6:10:51 AM PST by C210N (Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

Carbonite. Like the backup service. Named for the substance you referenced. Or...was it sarcasm?


4 posted on 02/19/2025 6:12:18 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Perfection is impossible. But if you pursue perfection...you may achieve excellence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

What if the asteroid belt is an exploded planet that had oceans with salt in it?


5 posted on 02/19/2025 6:18:56 AM PST by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Yes!

And no wonder I can’t freeze any of my enemies. I bought the wrong thing!


6 posted on 02/19/2025 6:21:05 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Tom Tetroxide

Every atom of every molecule on Earth and the Sun and all the planets and asteroids came from somewhere else. All the metals found on Earth and elsewhere were created inside a star’s furnace. When that star went nova or supernova, as the case may be, all that material was flung out into space to eventually coalesce into our Sun and its planetary retinue, to continue the cycle once again................


7 posted on 02/19/2025 6:24:33 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

When did our Sun go nova and spit out a bunch of rocks? I’ve never heard about this.


8 posted on 02/19/2025 6:34:05 AM PST by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Tom Tetroxide

No our Sun, but some other star billions of years ago.

We are literally made of stardust..................


9 posted on 02/19/2025 6:36:51 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger; Tom Tetroxide

We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden


10 posted on 02/19/2025 6:46:20 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

Joni Mitchell got it right.....................


11 posted on 02/19/2025 6:48:45 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

But she did get the Timeline off by a little bit, should be at least 5 billion year old carbon................


12 posted on 02/19/2025 6:53:48 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

13 posted on 02/19/2025 7:00:19 AM PST by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Why yes of course, and tiny little,microbes from which all life miraculously defied impossible odds agaisnt it, usurped natural law, and did supernatural things in order to become the billions of species we have today and in the past.


14 posted on 02/19/2025 7:02:54 AM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Hard to tell. Some of that carbon doesn’t have a clearly marked production or expiration date.


15 posted on 02/19/2025 7:07:09 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
...creating an environment of hot water below 100°C

Why 100°C?

Was the water at one sea level atmosphere of pressure?

Remarkable!

16 posted on 02/19/2025 7:08:21 AM PST by null and void (We can only do what seems rational and decent...and INEXPENSIVE... because we’re broke!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C210N
Under that salt, could be a long-dead vast evil city. Due to all the corruption and fornications, long since turned to salt.

Note the scale of the SEM image is 10 µm, about ¹⁄₁₀th the diameter of a single hair.

Pretty small evil city.

How many demons can dance on the head of a pin?

17 posted on 02/19/2025 7:12:59 AM PST by null and void (We can only do what seems rational and decent...and INEXPENSIVE... because we’re broke!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
There are a lot of icy comets out there.
This could be a core of one, or a comet passed close once.

18 posted on 02/19/2025 7:14:27 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

It’s amazing how a simple little algae cell in a pool of water can take a carbon dioxide molecule and split it in two, retaining the carbon and freeing up an Oxygen molecule for us to breathe, all using just a few photons of light and some water.

But for a human to be able to do it requires a laboratory full of equipment....


19 posted on 02/19/2025 7:17:59 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Tom Tetroxide
What if the asteroid belt is an exploded planet that had oceans with salt in it?

More likely that two roughly Mars sized planets collided, something similar happened here, giving us the Moon.

But let's suppose it did explode. How?

According to the current model of planetary formation when a pile o' rocks gets big enough mutual gravity squishes them down, the pressure and radioactive decay of some of the elements melts them together.

Heavier elements gravitate to the center.

Uranium is heavy.

Could it be possible that enough uranium ends up in close proximity to do the 'splody thing?

20 posted on 02/19/2025 7:34:03 AM PST by null and void (We can only do what seems rational and decent...and INEXPENSIVE... because we’re broke!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson