If you are traveling over 200 million miles to snag a sample of an asteroid, you want to make sure it's worth it. The following scientists are part of the OSIRIS-REx mission - NASA's first mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth. They have just published a collection of papers that confirm that asteroid Bennu - the target of OSIRIS-REx - is an ideal candidate to reveal clues about the origins of life in our solar system. These discoveries complete the OSIRIS-REx mission's pre-sample collection science requirements and offer insight into the sample of Bennu that scientists will study for generations to come.
The discoveries tell us that Bennu:
- Contains carbon-bearing, organic materials
- Likely used to interact with water
- Has a type of porous rock that would offer a new, unique perspective to our meteorite collections on Earth
- Is made up of an interior not uniform in density
- Contains ridge-like mounds that stretch from pole to pole and has differently shaped hemispheres
- Has areas, including our sample site, that have not been exposed to a lot of space weathering
Read the press release on these discoveries: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2002/osiris-rex-unlocks-more-secrets-from-asteroid-bennu
Participants:
- Michael Daly – OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter Instrument Scientist, York University
- Daniella (Dani) DellaGiustina – Planetary Scientist, OSIRIS-REx Image Processing Lead Scientist, University of Arizona
- Jason Dworkin – Astrobiologist, OSIRIS-REx Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- Hannah Kaplan – Planetary Scientist, OSIRIS-REx Spectral Mapping Lead, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- Jay McMahon – OSIRIS-REx Deputy Lead Gravity Science Team, The University of Colorado Boulder
- Benjamin Rozitis – Planetary and Space Scientist, The Open University
- Amy Simon – Planetary Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Ask us about what we've already learned from Bennu and what we can learn from a sample of this asteroid! We'll be answering questions from 2 - 3pm ET (18 - 19 UT), ask us anything!.
Proof: https://twitter.com/NASASolarSystem/status/1314594121068113920
Username: /u/nasa
It would seem kind of counterintuitive that they use Nitrogen instead of something lighter like Helium. Another problem that I see with using Nitrogen is that it could potentially bond with the molecules in the asteroid and contaminate the samples. If this is the case, why did go with it?
