The characterization of objects that have best preserved the mineralogical and molecular phases formed in the earliest stages of the Solar System evolution is key to understanding the processes that led to the formation of the planets in their diversity. The Hayabusa2 mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has returned for the first time samples collected at the surface of a C-type asteroid, Ryugu^1,2. They are now preserved at the Extraterrestrial Samples Curation Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Sagamihara, Japan, where they are submitted to a first round of purely non-destructive analyses. The MicrOmega hyperspectral microscope developed at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (Orsay, France), which operates in the near-infrared range (0.99–3.65 µm), is performing their mineralogical and molecular characterization down to the scale of a few tens of micrometres. Strong features at 2.7 µm (indicating their OH-rich content) and at 3.4 µm (diagnostic of the presence of organics) dominate at a global scale, but key distinctive signatures have been identified at a submillimetre scale. In particular, carbonates (a fraction of them enriched in iron) as well as NH-rich compounds have been detected. The occurrence of volatile-rich species, likely originating from the outer Solar System, would support Ryugu having preserved both pristine material and altered phases, which are now available for refined laboratory analyses with the potential to draw new insights into the formation and evolution paths of planetary bodies in our Solar System.

对在太阳系演化早期形成的矿物学和分子相保存得最好的天体进行表征是理解导致行星多样性形成的过程的关键。日本宇宙航空研究开发机构的隼鸟 2 号任务首次返回在 C 型小行星 Ryugu ^{1,2表面采集的样本}. 它们现在保存在位于日本相模原的宇宙航空科学研究所的日本宇宙航空研究开发机构的地外样本管理中心，在那里它们被提交给第一轮纯非破坏性分析。由 Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale（法国奥赛）开发的 MicrOmega 高光谱显微镜在近红外范围（0.99–3.65 µm）下运行，正在对其矿物学和分子表征进行低至几十微米的规模. 2.7 µm（表明其富含 OH 的含量）和 3.4 µm（诊断有机物存在）的强特征在全球范围内占主导地位，但已在亚毫米范围内确定了关键的独特特征。特别是，已检测到碳酸盐（其中一部分富含铁）以及富含 NH 的化合物。可能来自太阳系外的富含挥发性物质的物种的出现，将支持 Ryugu 保存了原始材料和改变的相，现在可用于精细的实验室分析，有可能对形成和演化路径产生新的见解。我们太阳系中的行星体。