© Screenshot, YouTube
Dnevnik Express
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After a seven-year journey, a NASA capsule has landed with samples from an asteroid, possibly containing answers to questions about Earth’s past.
The capsule was launched by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft 100,000 km from Earth (it continued on a different route to its next asteroid) and contained the third – and largest – sample ever returned for analysis. The previous two successful missions were carried out by the Japanese space agency JAXA.
The “alien” matter that scientists are now collecting is 250 grams: it seems small, but it will actually take decades to analyze. By comparison, the two Japanese missions brought a total of just under six grams to Earth. The material is to be distributed to two hundred scientists in 60 laboratories around the world.
The carbon-rich asteroid Bennu, discovered in 1999, may contain building blocks from the formation of the Solar System. NASA hopes that this finding will also be found in the samples.
© Screenshot, YouTube
The interest in it is also related to its age: it is believed that, like other similar bodies in the solar system, it was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, “approximately” when the Earth was formed. Some researchers hypothesize that it may contain organic molecules similar to those required for the emergence of microbes.
The latter possibility is important given the hypothesis (reinforced by the discovery of molecules in the Japanese samples) that space objects such as comets, asteroids, and meteorites are the cause of the primordial ingredients of life reaching the planet.
© Screenshot, YouTube
The journey to Bennu took two years and several months. The spot where OSIRIS-REx’s robotic arm took a sample was pinpointed with the help of one of the world’s most renowned experts in stereoscopy (creating a three-dimensional image from two dimensions) – Queen guitarist Brian May.
The largest ever asteroid sample arrives at Earth today
