The pieces of rock come from the Bennu asteroid – the same one that had a fraction of a chance of hitting Earth and causing the end of the world. This did not happen, but taking advantage of its proximity, scientists sent a research probe there. The mission was named OSIRIS-REx. It was a complete success… when the container with the collected sample was finally opened. The mission lasted 7 years. Then the scientists struggled with a jammed screw holding the container’s lid in place for weeks.
Rocks from Bennu
On this occasion, NASA released a high-resolution photo of the container. The rock fragments are currently in an airtight, clean space in the laboratory and will be examined. Scientists are trying to dissect rocks from the asteroid Bennu almost into atoms to learn their structure. Why is it important? Bennu is about 4.5 billion years old and may “remember” the origins of our solar system. It may also contain information about how life came to Earth.
Meanwhile, we can enjoy close-ups of the huge graphics from NASA’s website. I have included an excerpt below.
Scientists analyzing the samples have already detected the presence of water and carbon in them. We actually knew this even before opening the “can”, because some of the material taken from the asteroid was left outside. The researchers planned to collect 60 grams of material, but received much more. Another number arrived using devices for “scraping” the asteroid. Some will be used for research over the next two years, and some will be retained for the future so that samples can be analyzed using newer methods. It is not known when people will have the opportunity to look at such unique rocks again.
2024-01-21 22:13:12
#NASA #showed #crazy #havent #pebbles
