The largest asteroid sample ever returned to Earth contains water and carbon

The Osiris-REx mission presents its first results. Asteroid Bennu contains water and carbon, as scientists had hoped, NASA announced Wednesday, revealing the first images of dust and black bits of the largest asteroid sample ever returned to Earth. “Water and carbon molecules are exactly the type of matter we wanted to find,” he said. Welcome NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to an event in Houston. These are crucial elements in the formation of our planet, and will help us determine the origin of elements that could lead to life. »

The Osiris-REx mission took this sample in 2020 from the asteroid Bénou, and the capsule containing the precious cargo successfully returned to Earth just over two weeks ago, landing in the American desert.

Since then, the delicate process of opening the capsule has been done in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. But the process did bring some surprises.

The assembly chamber has not yet been opened

Before the capsule landed, the US space agency estimated that it had succeeded in collecting about 250 grams of material on the asteroid Bennu, a much larger number than two previous Japanese missions to other asteroids. NASA, for which this was the first maneuver, has yet to confirm this estimate.

Because of the abundance of material outside the assembly chamber itself, its opening has not yet begun, said Eileen Stansbury, the division’s chief scientist at the Johnson Space Center. “We take our time to systematically treat and take proper care of every piece of Bénou”She explained.

In fact, during the mission, it was not possible to close the lid of the assembly compartment. The cargo was secured by being transferred as planned to the capsule, but because of this leak, scientists expected to find remains outside the chamber, in the box in which it had been placed.

this matter “Rewards”Consisting of “Black dust” And based on “wreck”According to NASA, a rapid analysis team has been commissioned to get an initial idea of ​​Bennu’s composition. The sample was examined using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and infrared measurements.

Understanding the origin of life

Studying asteroids should allow scientists to better understand the formation of the solar system. Some scientists believe that asteroids such as Bennu brought compounds to our planet that later allowed life to be born.

The majority of the sample will be preserved for future generations to study with new and more efficient tools, in order to answer new scientific questions. This is what was done to the lunar rocks returned during the Apollo program.

Benno’s analysis may be useful in another way. Although there is a small chance (1 in 2,700 chances) that the asteroid will hit Earth in 2182, the impact would be catastrophic. Therefore, knowing its exact composition can help, if necessary, in determining the necessary protective effect to deviate its path.