Analyzing Sample from Asteroid Bennu
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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- Photographs of asteroid Bennu sample in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center: NASA
- Microscopic images of Bennu particle, with bright phosphate: Lauretta & Connolly et al. (2024) Meteoritics & Planetary Science, doi:10.1111/maps.14227
- Photograph of Sample Return curation team transporting the OSIRIS REx canister into the clean room lab: NASA. Photographer: Robert Markowitz.
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A collage of outer space pictures includes colorful nebulae, galaxies, stars, and planets. Text: News from the Universe.
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July 10, 2024. Analyzing Sample from Asteroid Bennu. On the left, a heavy duty cylindrical piece of machinery stands with the top hatch up. On the right, there is a flat panel of gray particles in the middle, with machinery pictured above and below. Text: Early analysis of the sample from asteroid Bennu, returned to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has exciting implications for the asteroid's origin. Phosphate found in the sample hints that the asteroid could have splintered off from an ancient, small, primitive ocean world. The gray rocky asteroid, with scattered light blue ice patches on the surface, hurtles through space. Text: The phosphate was a surprise to the team because the mineral was not detected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft while it was at Bennu. The rock is a pristine sample that is unchanged from the early days of our solar system and includes chemical elements and compounds that are essential to life as we know it, like carbon and nitrogen. A close-up photo of the rock sample shows a scale of 50 micro meters. It is gray with white splotches on the bottom, and the top is cracked charcoal-like gray. Text: quote, This material holds the key to unraveling the intricate processes of solar system formation and the prebiotic chemistry that could have contributed to life emerging on Earth, end quote, said scientist Dante Lauretta.
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Analysis will continue, as dozens more laboratories around the world will receive portions of the Bennu sample from NASA's Johnson Space Center in the coming months. Two NASA scientists in white suits from head to toe, including face masks and gloves, work in a lab with a bundle of material wrapped in plastic that sits on a podium. Text: This news was brought to you in part by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.