It will be the first time that NASA, the American space agency, has succeeded in bringing samples from an asteroid to Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency managed to recover asteroid debris in 2020, but it was a minimal amount.
This NASA mission, called ‘Osiris-Rex’ (and which you can watch live here), hopes to have collected 250 grams of the asteroid Bennu, although what is inside will only be known for sure when the capsule is opened on September 26. Scientists from the North American Space Agency explained this at a press conference, quoted by the EFE news agency.
Experts believe that the asteroid Bennu contains molecules dating back to the formation of the solar system 4,500 million 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 solar system yourself. .
NASA chose Bennu precisely because it is relatively rich in organic molecules and could help answer one of the great unknown questions in science: how did Earth manage to have an abundance of organic molecules and liquid water, two key ingredients for life ?
Besides Bennu’s composition, the other reason scientists chose it is that it has a known orbit, which made it easier for the “Osiris-Rex” spacecraft to approach it to collect samples.
Bennu was discovered in 1999 and is thought to have formed after a collision from fragments of a much larger asteroid. It is about as tall as the Empire State Building and its black, rough surface is filled with large rocks.
In addition, there is a small chance that Bennu will collide with Earth within 159 years and although this possibility is only 0.057%, this NASA mission also serves to see how the asteroid’s orbit can be changed if necessary, he told EFE the Argentinian Lucas Paganini. NASA scientist.
The journey began in 2016, when the spacecraft “Osiris-Rex” left NASA’s center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It arrived at Bennu in 2018 and after two years of flying around the asteroid looking for the best place to collect samples, the spacecraft approached the surface to extract dust and rock pieces.
If all goes according to plan, the capsule will land in the Utah desert at 8:55 a.m. local time (3:55 p.m. in Lisbon), then be transported by helicopter to a military base and only airlifted to Houston on Monday, where the Johnson Space Center will be located. NASA is located and the samples will be analyzed there by scientists.
Source: DN
