NASA Reveals Sneak Peek of Historic Asteroid Sample

It appears to be like Bennu was indeed the ideal target for NASA’s 1st-ever asteroid sample-return mission.

That mission, OSIRIS-REx, delivered parts of the 1,650-foot-vast (500 meters) Bennu to Earth late last thirty day period. NASA gave the world its very first search at the sample now (Oct. 11) all through a reside webcast party, which also provided a rundown of the initial analyses carried out on the off-Earth substance.

“The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will aid scientists examine the origins of everyday living on our have world for generations to arrive,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a assertion today. 

“Virtually every thing we do at NASA seeks to answer queries about who we are and the place we occur from,” Nelson added. “NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our knowledge of asteroids that could threaten Earth even though providing us a glimpse into what lies beyond. The sample has made it back again to Earth, but there is nevertheless so significantly science to arrive — science like we’ve hardly ever noticed prior to.” 

OSIRIS-REx released in September 2016 and arrived at Bennu in December 2018. The probe invested the subsequent 22 months studying the house rock from orbit and hunting for the proper position to swoop down and grab a sample.

That sampling operate took location in Oct 2020, and it provided a truthful little bit of drama: Bennu’s floor turned out to be incredibly porous, and OSIRIS-REx sank deeply into it. 

But the probe emerged with a bounty — so a great deal material that its collection system bought clogged, enabling some asteroid filth and pebbles to escape into house. OSIRIS-REx however managed to protected most of the Bennu bits in its sample container, and the probe headed towards Earth in Might 2021.

The journey residence wrapped up on Sept. 24, when OSIRIS-REx’s return capsule landed in the desert of northern Utah. A working day later on, the sample arrived at NASA’s Johnson House Middle (JSC) in Houston, exactly where it can be being processed, curated and saved.

That perform has only just started. For illustration, mission group members nevertheless you should not know accurately how significantly material OSIRIS-REx hauled house. They imagine it is really about 8.8 ounces (250 grams) — far bigger than the mission need of 2.1 ounces (60 g) — but which is just an estimate, calculated although the return capsule was continue to in room.

JSC will distribute elements of the Bennu sample above the coming months and years to researchers close to the earth, who will research it in wonderful element. 

Their get the job done will identify, among the other issues, the id of the carbon compounds, which could drop gentle on how daily life received started in this article on Earth. (Several scientists think carbon-wealthy asteroids like Bennu seeded our planet with life’s developing blocks long back, by means of impacts.)

And Bennu is a relic of our photo voltaic program‘s planet-developing period, so having the rock’s evaluate will enable us realize the development and evolution of our cosmic yard on a larger scale, mission crew customers claimed.

“As we peer into the ancient secrets preserved within just the dust and rocks of asteroid Bennu, we are unlocking a time capsule that offers us profound insights into the origins of our photo voltaic procedure,” Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, stated in the exact assertion. 

“The bounty of carbon-wealthy content and the considerable existence of h2o-bearing clay minerals are just the idea of the cosmic iceberg,” he claimed. “These discoveries, designed doable by way of a long time of committed collaboration and reducing-edge science, propel us on a journey to have an understanding of not only our celestial neighborhood but also the prospective for life’s beginnings. With just about every revelation from Bennu, we draw nearer to unraveling the mysteries of our cosmic heritage.”

The journey just isn’t more than for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, by the way. Even though its return capsule is now again on Earth, the probe keeps on traveling, towards an additional asteroid called Apophis. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to get there at that house rock in 2029 and review it up shut, on an extended mission called OSIRIS-APEX.

Copyright 2023 Space.com, a Future company. All rights reserved. This content may possibly not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.