Carbonaceous meteorites are thought to be fragments of C-type (carbonaceous) asteroids. Samples of the C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu were retrieved by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We measured the mineralogy and bulk chemical and isotopic compositions of Ryugu samples. The samples are mainly composed of materials similar to those of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, particularly the CI (Ivuna-type) group. The samples consist predominantly of minerals formed in aqueous fluid on a parent planetesimal. The primary minerals were altered by fluids at a temperature of 37° ± 10°C, about 5.2 − 0.7 + 0.8 million (statistical) or 5.2 − 2.1 + 1.6 million (systematic) years after the formation of the first solids in the Solar System. After aqueous alteration, the Ryugu samples were likely never heated above ~100°C. The samples have a chemical composition that more closely resembles that of the Sun’s photosphere than other natural samples do.

Evidence for the existence of continental crust older than 4.06 Ga has so far been obtained only from zircons in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. In this paper we report the first occurrence of a very old zircon with a U-Pb age of 4.2 Ga in the Acasta Gneiss Complex of northwestern Canada, based on a laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry and sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe study. The U-Pb data reveal that the 4.2 Ga zircon occurs as a xenocryst in a 3.9 Ga granitic rock. Trace element compositions of the xenocryst suggest that it crystallized from a granitic magma. Our results, suggesting the existence of granitic rocks outside the Yilgarn Craton at 4.2 Ga, imply that granitic continental crust was more widespread than previously thought, and that it was reworked into Early Archean continental crust.