On Sunday, September 22, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft safely deployed a capsule containing samples from an asteroid named Bennu. The NASA live stream commented that this historic event is like “opening a time capsule to our ancient solar system”.
This accomplishment is the completion of a 4 billion mile journey over the past seven years, and a huge milestone for the United States. Experts believe that the samples can help scientists unlock hidden mysteries about the solar system, including how it came to be and how life itself evolved.
Roughly 8.8 ounces of rock were brought to Earth from Bennu. After its recovery from the Utah desert, the capsule was transported to a military range before being flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, was chosen as the target site largely due to its age. The asteroid was likely formed in the first ten million years of the solar system’s existence, which made it a prime sample from before 4.5 billion years ago. Because of this, studying Bennu’s chemical and physical properties could be one of the best ways for scientists to understand the beginnings of the solar system. Many researchers are still unsure on whether or not asteroids played a role in the emergence of life, however, there are theories that suggest that asteroids and comets delivered water and other life-building materials to the planet. NASA’s sample may be the key to finally understanding space phenomena.
Bruce Betts, the chief scientist at The Planetary Society, congratulated NASA on their efforts and expressed interest and excitement for what this meant for the space field. When mentioning the asteroid sample, Betts said,“They’re pretty well untouched from right around 4.5 billion years ago. To get insights into these rocks gives real power to not just the science of asteroids but to everything in our solar system.”
What makes the return of the Bennu asteroid sample more remarkable, is that it is classified as a potentially hazardous object. NASA’s Planetary Defence Coordination Office estimated that there is a 1 in 2,700 chance of Bennu crashing into Earth between the years 2175 and 2199.
The ORISIS-REx sample was delivered to NASA’s Space Center on September 25. A curation team has begun the intricate process of disassembling the TAGSAM (Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) in order to reach the full sample within. At the start of the process, NASA scientists found dark powder and sand-sized particles on the lid of the capsule.
On September 29, NASA began the screening process for the sample. The initial curation process moved slower than anticipated, but for an excellent reason: the amount of material found in the lid of the capsule was much more than scientists anticipated.
“The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” said deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead Christopher Snead of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The first sample collected is now undergoing analysis which will provide initial data regarding the Bennu material and what can be expected from the bulk sample when it is revealed. This “quick-look” research will utilize a variety of instruments, including scanning electron microscope (SEM), infrared measurements, and x-ray diffraction (XRD), to gain a better understanding of the sample.
“You’ve got really top-notch people and instruments and facilities that are going to be hitting these samples,” Lindsey Keller, an analysis member at Johnson Space Center said. Over the coming weeks, the curation team will move the sample into a different specialized “glovebox” where they will carefully pick apart the capsule head until they reach the bulk of the sample within.
