Soon, NASA will receive at its facilities in Houston, United States, valuable samples collected from the asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx mission, scheduled for September.
This mission, which began in 2016, aimed to study the asteroid in search of clues about the origin of life on Earth and in our Solar System.
About the asteroid Bennu sample
Image: Science Photo Library/Canva Pro
Although they don’t expect to find living organisms in the samples, scientists are excited about the possibility of identifying the building blocks of life.
Nicole Lunning, one of the researchers involved, highlighted that analyzing these samples can provide crucial information about which precursors may have triggered the emergence of life on our planet and elsewhere in the Solar System.
The Osiris-REx probe reached the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and began its return journey to Earth in 2020. The samples are expected to bring dark and varied rocks, with the presence of carbon and organic compounds.
These rocks will be fundamental to understanding the evolution of the Solar System and the formation of life on Earth.
What care will the sample receive?
On September 24, when the probe lands, the precious samples will be contained in a metal box with a glass part, being selected by scientists using gloves through holes on the side.
Taking care to keep the material free from contamination is essential, preserving it in its original form as it was in space for billions of years.
Eve Berger, the mission’s cosmochemist, highlights that the importance of these unaltered samples lies in their ability to confirm or refute theories about the formation of the Earth and the emergence of life.
The expectation is that these precious samples, dating from a time when the Sun and planets were in formation, will reveal the long-held mysteries about the emergence of life on our planet and the process that shaped our Solar System.
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