Four billion years ago, the Aral Ocean may have already extended beneath the surface of asteroids outside the solar system. This outstanding discovery comes from delicate crystals found in samples from the asteroid Longgu, providing new clues about how water (the potential component of life) spreads across our cosmic neighborhoods.
Scientists at Kyoto University analyzed the grains returned by the Hayabusa2 mission in Japan and found original sediments of raw sodium carbonate, Halite (Table Salt) and other minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water. These fragile crystals are preserved in a space vacuum, telling the story of an ancient ocean hidden in what is now seemingly deserted space rocks.
“Clean treatment allows us to identify delicate salt minerals, giving us a unique glimpse into Ryugu’s chemical history,” said lead researcher Toru Matsumoto. These findings, published in natural astronomy, challenge our understanding of liquid water in the early solar system,” said Toru Matsumoto. Understanding of existence.
The focus of this study is Ryugu, a 900-meter-wide asteroid that may have detached from about 4.5 billion mothers 4.5 billion years ago. While the asteroid is dry today, the salt deposit suggests it once contained warm brown water and was heated by radioactive decay.
The team suspects they may find that water-soluble materials are not usually preserved in meteorites on Earth. These delicate compounds often react with the Earth’s atmosphere, eliminating evidence of their existence. However, the original spatial samples keep the complete secret.
“These crystals tell us how liquid water disappears from Ryugu’s parent body,” explains Matsumoto. The team believes that saltwater either evaporates into space through cracks or freezes as the asteroid body cools. “The salt mineral we found is the crystallization residue of that kind of water.”
These implications go far beyond Ryugu itself. Similar salt deposits are expected to exist in other bodies in our solar system, including the dwarf valleys in the asteroid belt, the lunar potatoes of Saturn (for its dramatic water feathers), and Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede today.
This discovery provides a new way to compare how water shapes different worlds in our solar system. The specific mixture of salts found can reveal the chemical conditions that exist when they form, just like how different types of rocks tell geologists about the Earth’s past.
This study requires extraordinary precision. Salt crystals are easily soluble in water, indicating that they can only be formed in highly concentrated brine under certain conditions. The team’s analysis showed that radioactive elements present in the solar system heated the inner ocean of the parent to temperatures below 100°C.
These findings add to the growing evidence that water-and its chemical processes achieved were wider in the early solar system than previously thought. Understanding the existence of this water and how it exists can help explain how Earth and other planets get their water and may be an organic compound necessary for life.
For researchers studying the origins of water in our solar system, these tiny salt crystals from Ryugu provide a rare window for conditions that existed billions of years ago and are preserved in cold space until they recently returned to Earth .
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