A NASA capsule will land on Sunday in the Utah desert, after a seven-year space journey, with rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu, which promises to provide unique information about the formation of the solar system.
It will be the first time that NASA, the United States space agency, manages to bring samples of an asteroid to Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency managed to recover asteroid remains in 2020, but it was a minimal amount.
This NASA mission, called “Osiris-Rex”, hopes to have collected 250 grams of the asteroid Bennu, although what it contains will only be known for sure when the capsule is opened on September 26, the agency’s scientists explained in a wheel. of press. North American space, cited by the EFE news agency.
Experts believe that the asteroid Bennu contains molecules that date back to the formation of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago, and that it could provide some answers to questions that have intrigued humanity for centuries, such as the origin of life and the own solar system. .
NASA chose Bennu precisely because it is relatively rich in organic molecules and could help answer one of the great unknowns of science: How did Earth manage to have an abundance of organic molecules and liquid water, two key ingredients for life?
In addition to Bennu’s composition, the other reason scientists chose it is because it has a well-known orbit, which made it easy for the “Osiris-Rex” spacecraft to approach it to collect samples.
Discovered in 1999, Bennu is believed to have formed from fragments of a much larger asteroid after a collision. It is about the height of the Empire State Building and its rough, black surface is littered with large rocks.
In addition, there is a remote possibility that Bennu will collide with Earth within 159 years and, although that possibility is only 0.057%, this NASA mission also serves to see how to change the trajectory of the asteroid if necessary, he told Efe. the Argentine Lucas Paganini. NASA scientist.
The journey began in 2016, when the “Osiris-Rex” spacecraft departed from the NASA center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It arrived at Bennu in 2018 and after flying around the asteroid for two years, looking for the best place to collect samples, the spacecraft approached the surface to extract dust and pieces of rock.
If everything goes according to plan, the capsule will land at 08:55 local time (15:55 in Lisbon) in the Utah desert, then it will be transported by helicopter to a military base and only on Monday will it be taken by plane to Houston. , where NASA’s Johnson Space Center is located and scientists will analyze the samples there.
Source: TSF
