Pristine material from the asteroid Ryugu was brought back to Earth in 2020 after a six-year mission to the celestial body around 300 million kilometres away
This file handout photograph released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on December 24, 2020, shows samples of soil from the asteroid Ryugu, inside C compartment of the capsule collected by the Hayabusa-2 space probe, at JAXA Sagamihara Campus in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture. Image: JAXA / AFP