The asteroid Bennu was sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission, which returned to Earth last month. Researchers have already begun studying the samples, and say they contain key ingredients of life
We’ve had a first look at samples from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid and they are full of carbon and water – the necessary ingredients for life.. “The bounty of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg.”by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2020. The spacecraft then travelled millions of kilometres in order to return to Earth. Theon 24 September.
OSIRIS-REx’s goal was to collect about 60 grams of material from Bennu to allow researchers to study space rocks that formedand were not subsequently changed by heat or water, as happens to meteorites that hit the Earth. The capsule actually contained much more material. In fact, the researchers have not yet analysed all its contents. Instead, they studied the charcoal-coloured dust and tiny Bennu pebbles that settled on the lid and around the base of the sample-holding canister. They subjected this material to a battery of analytical tests, which revealed the presence of water, carbon and several organic molecules.
“Carbon and water are not life, but they are the building blocks that life needs, and there are other pivotal materials and minerals there,” saysat Stony Brook University in New York. He says that researchers could predict some of the elements that have been identified in the samples, but analysing them further will show how water may have changed the rocky asteroid over time, beginning early in the development of the solar system.and the timeline of water’s presence on other planets.
NASA’s researchers will continue analysing and characterising the samples for the next two years. But they will preserve at least 70 per cent of the material for further research by scientists worldwide and in the future.
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