Asteroid Itokawa Contains Water and Organic Matter

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Asteroid Itokawa contains water and organic matter:

Scientists at Royal Holloway, from the University of London (England), found water and organic materials in a small sample of the surface of the asteroid Itokawa, which was brought to Earth through a mission by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The discovery was revealed in the study published in Scientific Reports, this Thursday (4).

[...] The study was based on a particle collected by the Hayabusa mission, launched by JAXA in May 2003. Just over two years after takeoff, the spacecraft made a quick landing on the surface of Itokawa, in November 2005, to collect samples.

Even facing difficulties such as communication problems with the team on the ground and engine failures, the spacecraft managed to return to Earth in June 2010, landing in Woomera, Australia, with the important cargo that was carefully analyzed in the laboratory.

[...] The study showed that Itokawa has evolved constantly over billions of years, incorporating water and organic compounds of external origin throughout this process, just as it happened with Earth in the distant past, at the beginning of its formation.

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