As of: February 11, 2024, 10:44 a.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Material from the asteroid “Bennu” is being examined on Earth – the composition of the rock leads a researcher to speculate.
Tucson, Arizona - In September 2023, NASA's space probe, "Osiris-Rex", transported a valuable cargo to Earth: substance from an extraterrestrial celestial body.
The probe had previously visited the dangerous asteroid “Bennu” and collected material there that is of particular importance for science.
Asteroids are considered relics from the early days of the solar system and could provide valuable information about that era.
It is also debated whether they were the source of water or even the basis of life on earth.
Surname: |
Bennu (1999 RQ₃) |
|---|---|
Type: |
Apollo asteroid |
Discovery: |
September 11, 1999 |
Orbital period around the sun: |
437 days |
Diameter: |
0.492 kilometers |
Dimensions: |
566m × 542m × 499m |
NASA brings samples from the dangerous asteroid “Bennu” to Earth
The first samples of “Osiris-Rex” were distributed to scientific institutions last year, including one in Frankfurt.
However, the US space agency NASA was only recently able to access most of the material after it managed to loosen two stuck screws using special tools.
Dante Lauretta, the lead investigator of the “Osiris-Rex” mission, has already been able to examine the material in a laboratory at the University of Arizona.
“We will be busy for a very, very long time,” reports the scientist on the
Space.com
portal .
“This is an enormous amount of samples for us.”
The first results will be presented by various research teams at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas next month.
According to Lauretta, over 70 summaries of the scientific results have already been submitted to the conference.
“This will all be published from March,” said the scientist.
A container containing a sample of debris from the asteroid Bennu.
NASA tried to open the container for weeks.
© Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebers/NASA Johnson Space Center, ARES/dpa
Traces of water and carbon were found in material from asteroid “Bennu”.
It is already known that traces of water and carbon - the basic elements for life on Earth - have been found in the asteroid material.
Another discovery has already excited the scientific community: The asteroid material “looks significantly different than anything else in our meteorite collection,” says Lauretta.
"There's a whole range of material that we don't have access to if we rely only on meteorites," he adds.
The problem with meteorites is that they fall through the Earth's atmosphere and become heated as they do so.
This causes their material to change and it is often difficult to determine which asteroid they come from.
However, this was not a problem with meteorites recently collected near Berlin.
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Material directly from asteroids is important for research
Material that is taken directly from an asteroid in space offers science decisive advantages: It can be packaged in an atmosphere that changes the material as little as possible.
So science has access to original material from the early days of the solar system.
In addition, the assignment to the asteroid is easy.
The sample container with the material from asteroid “Bennu” is in a so-called “glove box” and is surrounded by nitrogen.
It can only be opened in this box.
(Archive image) © IMAGO/Cover Images
The samples from “Bennu” show a phosphate layer that has never been observed in meteorites before, says Lauretta.
According to the scientist, a similarly high phosphate concentration has already been detected in extraterrestrial ocean worlds.
For example, Saturn's moon Enceladus contains phosphates, important building blocks of life.
“The asteroid 'Bennu' could be a fragment of an ancient ocean world,” Lauretta suspects.
This is his working hypothesis, he explains to
New Scientist
.
“This is still very speculative.
But it is the best clue I have at the moment to explain the origin of this material."
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