The first looks at the extraterrestrial stuff are quite promising.
Bennu appears to have been the ideal target for NASA's inaugural mission to
retrieve samples from asteroids.
Late this month, that mission, OSIRIS-REx, sent parts of the 500-meter-wide
(1,650-foot) Bennu to Earth. During a live webcast event today (October 11),
NASA presented the sample to the globe for the first time and summarized the
initial analyses conducted on the off-Earth substance.
According to mission team members, those very early scientific results are
encouraging and demonstrate that Bennu is rich in both water and chemicals
containing carbon.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
stated in a statement
today that "the OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample
ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of
life on our own planet for generations to come."
"Almost everything we do at NASA seeks to answer questions about who we are
and where we come from," Nelson stated. "NASA projects such as OSIRIS-REx
will provide us with a view into the beyond while also advancing our
understanding of asteroids that pose a hazard to Earth. Even though the
sample has returned to Earth, there is still a ton of undiscovered science
tremendous be discovered."
Launched in September 2016, OSIRIS-REx reached Bennu in December 2018. Over
the course of the following 22 months, the probe studied the space rock from
orbit and looked for the best location to dive down and collect a
sample.
October 2020 saw a significant amount of drama during that sample run when
OSIRIS-REx descended down into Bennu's surface, which proved to be
unexpectedly porous.
However, the probe returned with such a bounty that some asteroid dust and
pebbles were able to escape into space due to a clogged gathering device.
Even yet, OSIRIS-REx was able to contain the majority of the Bennu fragments
in its sample container, and in May 2021 the probe started its journey
toward Earth.
On September 24, the return capsule of OSIRIS-REx touched down in the
northern Utah desert, concluding the voyage home. The sample was sent to
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston one day later, where it is
currently undergoing processing, curation, and storage.
That work is just getting started. For example, the precise amount of
material that OSIRIS-REx brought home is still unknown to the mission crew.
They estimate it to be around 8.8 ounces (250 grams), which is far more than
the 2.1 ounces (60 g) mission requirement. However, this estimate was made
while the return capsule was still in orbit.
across the next several months and years, JSC will send portions of the
Bennu sample to scholars all across the world, who will carefully examine
it.
Among other things, their effort will identify the carbon molecules, which
may provide insight into the origins of life on Earth. (Many scientists
believe that collisions from carbon-rich asteroids, such as Bennu, provided
the building elements of life on Earth eons ago.)
Furthermore, measuring Bennu will help us comprehend the origin and
evolution of our cosmic backyard on a broader scale, according to mission
team members. Bennu is a remnant of the planet-building epoch in our solar
system.
Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of
Arizona, stated in the same statement, "As we peer into the ancient secrets
preserved within the dust and rocks of asteroid Bennu, we are unlocking a
time capsule that offers us profound insights into the origins of our solar
system."
"The bounty of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of
water-bearing clay minerals are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg," he
stated. "These findings, which are the result of years of devoted
cooperation and state-of-the-art research, set us on a quest to comprehend
not just our cosmic surroundings but also the possibility of life's origins.
We are getting closer to solving the secrets of our cosmic ancestry with
every revelation from Bennu."
That being said, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's voyage is far from done. The
probe continues to fly in the direction of Apophis, another asteroid, even
though its return capsule has returned to Earth. On an extended mission
known as OSIRIS-APEX, OSIRIS-REx is slated to land on the space rock in 2029
and conduct close-up research there.
