An initial analysis of the sample collected from the asteroid Bennu has yielded some promising results.Back in September 2016, NASA sent a spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, to rendez-vous with Bennu – a huge 500-meter-wide asteroid with the potential to strike the Earth sometime in the future.
After arriving there in 2018, it spent over two years investigating the asteroid and collecting sample material before heading back home. Following a further two-year journey through the solar system, it finally arrived back on Earth last month, much to the delight of NASA’s science team.
Now, at last, an initial analysis of the sample it collected has provided some preliminary results.
Most notably, the material appears to contain water and large amounts of carbon – a prime indicator that Bennu may be carrying the building blocks of life.It has long been theorized that asteroids and comets may have played a key role in delivering the necessary materials needed for life to develop on Earth billions of years in the past.
“The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Hellbound and Down 