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tcNASA Just Revealed the Asteroid Chunk OSIRIS Brought Back to Earth. Here’s What They Found
NASA has revealed a chunk of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, brought back to Earth on Sept. 24 as part of a landmark mission to collect and return to Earth the largest sample of asteroid ever.
The sample includes abundant water, carbon minerals and organic molecules, NASA administrator Bill Nelson revealed. The sample has 4.7% arbon by weight, he added. This is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth, Nelson said, adding that carbon and water are critical ingredients for life.
OSIRIS-REx lead scientist Dante Lauretta went into more detail on the water found in the sample, showing that the water was effectively locked up in Bennu's rocks — supporting evidence that water may have first come to Earth via a similar asteroid.
The mission, OSIRIS-REx, launched in 2016 https://themessenger.com/tech/nasa-asteroid-mission-successful-landing-osiris-rex, raveled 4 billion miles and spent seven years in space to get to Bennu, kick up some dust and rocks off the surface to cache, and then come back to Earth with its precious cargo for analysis.
Read the full story on our site. https://themessenger.com/tech/osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-nasa-composition-findings
#space
NASA has revealed a chunk of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, brought back to Earth on Sept. 24 as part of a landmark mission to collect and return to Earth the largest sample of asteroid ever.
The sample includes abundant water, carbon minerals and organic molecules, NASA administrator Bill Nelson revealed. The sample has 4.7% arbon by weight, he added. This is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth, Nelson said, adding that carbon and water are critical ingredients for life.
OSIRIS-REx lead scientist Dante Lauretta went into more detail on the water found in the sample, showing that the water was effectively locked up in Bennu's rocks — supporting evidence that water may have first come to Earth via a similar asteroid.
The mission, OSIRIS-REx, launched in 2016 https://themessenger.com/tech/nasa-asteroid-mission-successful-landing-osiris-rex, raveled 4 billion miles and spent seven years in space to get to Bennu, kick up some dust and rocks off the surface to cache, and then come back to Earth with its precious cargo for analysis.
Read the full story on our site. https://themessenger.com/tech/osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-nasa-composition-findings
#space
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