Los Angeles (ANTARA) – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States (US) on Wednesday (11/10) revealed a number of preliminary studies on samples of the 4.5 billion year old asteroid Bennu obtained in outer space and brought back to earth shows evidence of high water and carbon content.
NASA said the combination of the two elements could indicate that the building blocks of life on Earth could potentially be found in these rocks.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx space probe, the first US mission to retrieve samples from an asteroid, returned samples from the asteroid Bennu to Earth on September 24.
“The sample from OSIRIS-REx is the largest sample of a carbon-rich asteroid ever returned to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our planet for generations to come,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
He said that almost everything NASA does seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from.
According to him, NASA missions such as OSIRIS-REx will increase understanding of asteroids that have the potential to threaten Earth as well as provide an overview of what is out there.
“The samples were successfully brought back to Earth, but there is still so much science that can be learned, science that we have never known before,” he said.
Reporter: Xinhua
Editor: Imam Budilaksono
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2023-10-13 10:29:02
#Carbon #water #content #NASAs #Bennu #asteroid #samples
