This discovery could shake our world.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has collected samples from Bennu, a 4.5 billion-year-old “near-Earth” asteroid that has a small chance of a planetary collision within 159 years, and could show, as described by the agency, “The building blocks of life on Earth.”
NASA Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Safety: The Regolith Explorer spacecraft, or OSIRIS-REx for short, recovered parts of Bennu that contained both “abundant” carbon content and water.
The discovery opens the door to the possibility that the habitable capabilities of our planet, exclusive to the rest of the solar system, come from portions of rock.
The samples were safely parachuted to the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range late last month, part of a first-of-its-kind mission that began in 2016, for analysis.
Samples from a “near-Earth” asteroid were parachuted to Earth for analysis.AP
“The OSIRIS-REx sample is the largest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever sent to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come,” the administrator of the NASA, Bill Nelson.
“NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse of what lies beyond. “The sample has returned to Earth, but there is still a lot of science to be done – science like we have never seen before.”
NASA also reported that the footprints of Bennu, a space body slightly wider than the height of the Empire State Building, not only shed new light on the origins of Earth, but also contribute to our understanding of the formation of the solar system. .
The Bennu samples could also explain many mysteries about the origins of the solar system.REUTERS
NASA is currently investigating how it is possible that life-forming elements have also been “seeded” on Earth from outer space.
Bennu itself is believed to have broken off from a larger, carbon-rich asteroid between 700 and 2 billion years ago.
The recovery of the Bennu samples also revealed “extra” materials that NASA experts needed more time to collect once they arrived on Earth. In the next two years, further analysis and preservation of at least 70% of the samples will be carried out for global exploration by more than 200 scientists from around the world.
Samples from Bennu are being analyzed on Earth for their high value in an explanation of life.AP
In the coming weeks, other pieces will be loaned to the Smithsonian Institution, Space Center Houston and the University of Arizona.
“As we look at the ancient secrets preserved within the dust and rocks of asteroid Bennu, we are unlocking a time capsule that offers us deep insights into the origins of our solar system… The abundance of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water. The clay minerals they contain are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx.
“These discoveries… propel us on a journey to understand not only our celestial neighborhood but also the potential for the beginning of life. “With each revelation of Bennu, we come closer to unraveling the mysteries of our cosmic heritage.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn