Less than a daylight after opening the OSIRIS - Rex sampling collected from asteroid Bennu , NASA has free the first results , reporting the sample is mellow in carbon , as well as hold back significant water . More detailed analyses will investigate the molecules in which these two vital components for life are combined .
scientific discipline is usually a slow process . endeavour to hurry it too much often lead to fatal miscalculations . Sometimes , however , we get results within hours – although in this subject , it took decades of pre - launch planning , a seven - year military mission to the asteroidBennuand back , and two weeks from bring down to the canister ’s curtain raising .
“ The OSIRIS - male monarch sample is the bighearted carbon paper - productive asteroid sampling ever deport to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of biography on our own planet for generations to come , ” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tell in astatement . “ Almost everything we do at NASA attempt to respond question about who we are and where we come from . NASA missions like OSIRIS - REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could jeopardise Earth while giving us a glimpse into what consist beyond . The sample distribution has made it back to Earth , but there is still so much scientific discipline to come – scientific discipline like we ’ve never seen before . ”
Collected images of Bennu based on almost a year of observations by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraftImage Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
The OSIRIS - Rex mission visited Bennu and send back the canister with the intention of collect just 60 grams ( 2.1 ounces ) of asteroid . That may sound like a paltry return , but it would be enough to keep many team busy for years to do . By comparison , theHayabusa2 missionreturned from Ryugu with just 5.4 grams ( 0.19 apothecaries' ounce ) , which have already been study inthousands of scientific papers , including the finding that it holds vitamin B3 and one of thenucleotide bases for RNA .
Moreover , when NASA opened the OSIRIS - Rex retrovert ejection seat within a sealed container they were delighted to discover “ Thevery best ‘ problem ’ ” in the form of more material than intended .
It was planned that 30 percent of the sampling would be analyzed by more than 200 scientists over the next two class . The rest would be set aside for either advance in proficiency , or to address question that may arise out of next rounds of inquiry . Every combat of surplus material makes that apportioning easy .
“ Our lab were ready for whatever Bennu had in store for us,”saidVanessa Wyche , managing director , NASA Johnson . “ We ’ve had scientist and engineers exploit side - by - side for year to develop specialised gloveboxes and tools to keep the asteroid material pristine and to curate the sample so researchers now and decade from now can study this precious talent from the cosmos . ”
Bennu bechance to be one of the most threatening asteroids to Earth with a more than1 in 2,000 chanceof pip us in 2182 or the hundred after . The fact that its orbit brings it so closelipped to Earth was one reason to take it as a target . However , it was selected in the main because it is moot to be a particularly unmodified carbonaceous asteroid , offering admittance to an almost pristine sample distribution of the material from which the inner Solar System formed .
