<h5>About the Ryugu asteroid.</h5><p>Did you know there's a cool diamond-shaped rock in space? It's called Ryugu! Scientists found it in 1999. Ryugu travels around the sun, between Earth and Mars, and sometimes comes close to Earth.</p><p>In 2014, Japan sent a spacecraft named Hayabusa2 to visit Ryugu. It took four years to get there, arriving in 2018.</p><p>Hayabusa2 studied Ryugu for a year and even landed on it to collect a sample! This piece was brought to Earth in 2020. Scientists are now studying it to learn more about Ryugu and the solar system.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><figure> <iframe width="100%" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/agnSwV451_4" title="Hayabusa2’s second touchdown on asteroid Ryugu" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><figcaption>Hayabusa2’s second touchdown on asteroid Ryugu. Video by SciNews.</figcaption></figure></div><h5>Discovery about a Ryugu sample.</h5><figure class="image"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/newsahoot.appspot.com/Sample_93ccc070b8.jpg" alt="Sample.jpg"><figcaption>Microscopic view of the Ryugu sample. Photo by Wiley Online Library.</figcaption></figure><p>When scientists looked at the rock, they found something they didn’t expect - Earth bacteria! The bacteria appeared on the rock, spread for a while, and then died.</p><p>The study showed that the bacteria came from Earth and got on the rock right before scientists started to study it.</p><h5>Could the Bacteria Come from Ryugu?</h5><p>Could the bacteria have come from Ryugu? No, scientists said. The bacteria were not on the rock when it was in space. They believe the bacteria got on the rock after it came to Earth and was exposed to the air.</p><p>This shows how strong these tiny living things are. They can even survive on rocks from space! Isn’t it exciting what we can learn from an asteroid? Who knows what other secrets space holds!</p>

Ryugu is a diamond-shaped asteroid visited by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2.

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