“University of Arizona’s Examination of OSIRIS-REx Samples Aligns with Predictions for Asteroid Bennu”
The OSIRIS-REx mission, led by the University of Arizona, successfully brought back samples from the asteroid Bennu in late September. The ongoing analysis of these samples aligns with earlier predictions, as two years of remote surveys indicated the presence of abundant water within claylike minerals on Bennu.
The samples, totaling 70 grams, are currently being examined at the university’s Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis, with only 200 milligrams (approximately one-fifth the weight of a large paperclip) available for study.
OSIRIS-REx
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston is expected to distribute around one-quarter of the complete sample to the global science team, while the remainder will be preserved for external researchers and future generations, reminiscent of the approach taken with moon rocks from the Apollo missions. The lab’s analysis involves particles that are nearly invisible to the naked eye, weighing a billionth or trillionth of a gram. The team employs electron microscopes for atomic-scale study and a nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometer to explore isotopes that may provide insights into the particles’ origins.
Since the samples were collected directly from the source, they offer an unparalleled record of the formation processes that occurred in the solar system approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Additionally, researchers aim to unravel the origins of Bennu, hypothesized to have broken off from a much larger carbon-rich asteroid between 700 million and 2 billion years ago.
