London –
NASA send samples asteroid Bennu to be researched in London, England. This asteroid is known as the one with the greatest potential to hit Earth in the next 300 years. NASA has taken samples by plane directly on the asteroid and some time ago it returned to Earth.
Scientists at the Natural History Museum, London, expressed their enthusiasm for investigating a teaspoonful sample of the asteroid Bennu. They will explore these space particles and through various experiments and tests, hope to gain insight into how asteroids form, what materials they contain, and whether they play a role in the formation of life on Earth.
“We are very lucky. We are the first people to touch Bennu samples. And in this museum, we have a team of scientists who are starting research on these samples, to then understand their chemical and mineralogical composition,” said Dr. Ashley King, a meteorite scientist at the Natural History Museum and part of a team of scientists examining Bennu samples.
What is most interesting about Bennu is the belief that this 500 m long asteroid contains material that played a role in the creation of Earth. This material is in the form of water and iron, which are also believed to have come from the process of creating our solar system 4.56 billion years ago. Meanwhile, the asteroid Bennu formed in a protoplanetary disk orbiting the young sun, similar to Saturn’s rings.
“This is a kind of remnant of the building blocks of our solar system. When we think about how the Earth was created, we immediately think of Bennu as the owner of the recipe. For this reason, we want to explore the history of Bennu, study the origins of our solar system, and then the history of our Earth. ” Ashley explained as quoted by detikINET from Hot Hardware, Wednesday (29/11/2023).
Another interesting aspect of studying the Bennu sample is the fact that it has not been stained by Earth’s atmosphere. When an asteroid enters this planet’s atmosphere, the extreme heat that hits it will change its shape permanently. Likewise, humidity from the Earth’s surface will change the chemical content of the space rock. Considering these two factors, it is actually impossible to find out the facts about all the asteroids that hit Earth.
“So, Earth was still a dry planet when it was formed and we think that the water on Earth came from outer space, which then led to the evolution of Earth. We think Bennu matches the type of asteroid that brought water to Earth,” said Dr. Helena Bates, scientist at the Natural History Museum.
The team, consisting of hundreds of scientists around the world, is now focused on executing a research plan that was designed years before the arrival of the Bennu samples. The hope is that they will be able to reveal the recipe for Earth’s formation to become the planet we now know.
*This article was written by Khalisha Fitri, a participant in the Merdeka Campus Certified Internship Program at detikcom.
Watch the video “Scientists in England Start Examining Samples of the Asteroid Bennu”
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2023-11-29 07:30:09
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