New research into tiny fragments of the asteroid Ryugu sampled by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission showed that water flowed through it more than one billion years after it formed. When JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission returned samples from asteroid Ryugu, researchers eagerly awaited access to them. But by showing that water flowed through Ryugu more than one billion years after the Solar System formed, the new research may have filled the void in our understanding. This forces us to rethink the starting conditions for our planet’s water system. If those samples show similar water activity as the Ryugu sample, then sample return missions will have shown how valuable they are, by re-writing our understanding of the Solar System, Earth, water, and even life.