Oct 12, 2023 19:00:00

It is revealed that the sample of asteroid 'Benne' recovered by NASA's spacecraft contained abundant carbon and water essential for living things

NASA's planetary probe '

OSIRIS-REx ' collected surface samples from the asteroid Bennu and dropped the samples to Earth on September 24, 2023. As a result of investigating the samples collected by NASA, it has been reported that organic substances including carbon and water molecules were confirmed in the samples.

NASA asteroid sample contains life-critical water and carbon
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-asteroid-sample-life-critical-carbon.html

NASA's 1st asteroid sample is rich in carbon and water | Space

https://www.space.com/osiris-rex-bennu-asteroid-sample-carbon-water

NASA finds water and organics in asteroid sample—possible clues to origin of life | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/nasa-finds-water-and-organics-in-asteroid-sample-possible-clues-to-origin-of-life/

Revealing the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample (Official NASA Broadcast in 4K) - YouTube


OSIRIS-REx was launched on September 8, 2016, and arrived at the asteroid Bennu on December 3, 2018. After exploring Bennu from 2019 to 2020, surface samples were collected on October 20, 2020. After that, it began its return to Earth on May 10, 2021.

The capsule containing Bennu's surface samples collected by OSIRIS-REx landed at the Utah Test and Training Range at 10:52 a.m. local time on September 24, 2023, and was recovered by NASA.

NASA's Osiris-Rex probe successfully returns samples from the asteroid Bennu, revealing the origin of life on Earth and the formation of the solar system - GIGAZINE

The recovered capsule was then transported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, which has a clean room dedicated to space sample analysis, where the capsule was opened and the samples analyzed. The amount of sample recovered during this mission was approximately 250g, the largest amount ever returned from an asteroid.

The sample was analyzed jointly by NASA, the University of Arizona, and others, using electron microscopes and infrared measurements.

The results of the survey will be published on October 11, 2023, and the images released at that time show small black rocks, pebbles, and dust inside the capsule. According to Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, in addition to water molecules trapped in carbon and minerals that are essential for life on Earth, compounds such as iron sulfide and iron oxide were also confirmed.

Many space scientists believe that the reason why Earth's oceans, rivers, and lakes exist is that they were formed by a collision with a watery asteroid about 4.5 to 4 billion years ago. It is also believed that carbon, which is necessary for the birth of life such as proteins, enzymes, and DNA, was also transported by asteroids, and NASA has confirmed that water and carbon, etc., were discovered in the samples from asteroid Bennu. It is hoped that this will be useful for research into the origin of life on Earth and the formation of the solar system and its planets.

Here they are. These bits of ancient space rock may hold clues to how the rocky planets—including our own—formed. Scientists worldwide will study the #OSIRISREx sample for generations to come to get answers on where we come from. pic.twitter. com/2yN2cs36gQ

— NASA (@NASA) October 11, 2023

Furthermore, it is estimated that the asteroid Bennu, which orbits the sun at a distance of approximately 81 million km from the Earth, will come closest to the Earth in 2182 and may collide with the Earth, with a low probability of approximately 1 in 2700. The data provided by OSIRIS-REx will also be useful in research to avoid future asteroid collisions.