‘Touchdown’ at 10:52 a.m. on the 24th, US time.
Falling in the Utah desert… Transfer to clean facility
Pay attention to whether ‘material of life origin’ has been discovered
The capsule (red circle) of the Osiris-Rex probe landed in the Utah desert, USA, at 10:52 a.m. on the 24th (11:52 p.m. Korean time). The capsule contains 250g of rock samples collected from the asteroid Bennu. Provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Rock samples collected from the asteroid Bennu, located hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth, fell in a desert in the United States on the 24th (local time). The space science community believes that if substances that could lead to the birth of life are discovered in rock samples, more weight will be given to the hypothesis that life on Earth originated from an asteroid impact.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the capsule dropped to Earth by the space probe ‘Osiris-Rex’ landed at the test and training site in Utah at 10:52 a.m. (11:52 p.m. Korean time). The sight of the capsule slowly falling to the ground with its parachute open in the air was broadcast live around the world on the Internet. When the capsule landed on the ground, NASA researchers clapped and cheered.
An illustration of the Osiris-Rex probe approaching the asteroid ‘Bennu’ in October 2020 to collect rock samples. Provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Inside the capsule, 250g of rock samples were collected by Bennu on October 20, 2020 with a robotic arm attached to its fuselage. At the time of rock sample collection, the distance between Benue and Earth was 321 million km. It was a distant universe, more than twice the distance between the Earth and the sun (150 million km).
NASA launched Osiris-Rex in 2016 to explore Bennu, an asteroid with a diameter of 492 meters. The capsule that arrived on Earth that day was separated from the main body of Osiris-Rex while flying to a point in space 102,000 km away from Earth.
NASA researchers immediately approached the capsule after it fell to the ground and transported it by helicopter. The location where the samples were temporarily stored was a clean facility at the Utah Test and Training Center. The capsule will stay here for a day and then be moved to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on the 25th. The rocks will be distributed to 233 scientists around the world, including NASA. NASA said, “70% of the rocks sucked from Bennu will not be analyzed immediately, but will be stored for research by future generations.”
Rocks collected from the asteroid Bennu are attracting the attention of the space science community. The biggest reason is that observations of Bennu have shown that it appears to be rich in organic matter. In the scientific community, many believe that an asteroid was the origin of life on Earth. The hypothesis is that organic molecules contained in countless asteroids that fell on the early Earth sowed the seeds of life on Earth, and that evolution continued over a long period of time, forming a complex ecosystem.
In relation to this, Japan previously analyzed rock samples from the asteroid ‘Ryugu’ collected by the country’s space probe ‘Hayabusa 2’, which fell to Earth in December 2020, and discovered some of the RNA components, a key material for life. If the presence of organic molecules is finally confirmed in the rock samples sucked from Bennu, the view that the roots of life on Earth lie in asteroids will be further strengthened.
For this reason, NASA’s biggest concern is to ensure that the capsule does not pollute the Earth’s environment. At most, they returned to Earth with clues that could be the origin of life from an asteroid, but if a mistake is made during the collection process and materials from Earth are buried, the meaning of the exploration could be lost.
The space science community also pays attention to the fact that Bennu is estimated to have formed 4.5 billion years ago, in the early stages of the formation of the solar system. This is because, apart from materials originating from life, there may be various ingredients that can provide a vivid look into the past of the solar system through cosmic geology.
On Earth, it is difficult to find a natural environment from billions of years ago due to weather phenomena and tectonic changes, but it is different for asteroids in outer space, where extremely low temperatures of over -200 degrees Celsius are maintained and there are no weather phenomena. Like an embalmed mummy, there is a high possibility that it retains the rock components created in the early days of the solar system’s formation.
Attention is also focused on why the Osiris-Rex probe did not land directly on Earth, but dropped a capsule containing rock samples as if throwing it to Earth. Osiris-Rex separated the capsule, sent it to Earth, and then departed for distant space again to explore another asteroid, Apophis. Apophis is scheduled to approach Earth in 2029.
