2023-12-15 18:13:00
A lot of material has collected in the lid of the sample
© NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold
Some materials that are actually rare or not found on asteroids are abundant in the Bennu sample.
The spacecraft collected in 2020 Osiris-Rex Samples on the asteroid Determine. In October 2023, this sample was opened for the first time and sent to institutions for testing. The mission leader now reports that there might be a previously unknown organic material in it Dante Lauretta.
➤ Read more: NASA reveals what brought OSIRIS-REx back to Earth
How Space.com reported, Lauretta explained at the conference of American Geophysical Union: “I firmly assume that Cosmochemistrycommunity will fall on it”. The substance is located on the outer lid of the sample capsule and is rich in carbon and organic molecules.
The material is very dark, but you can also find a significantly lighter substance
© NASA
The particles are dark and consist of centimeter and millimeter sized “the knotty Brocken“ with a rough, “cauliflower-like” texture consist. “They stick to everything they touch.”
Magnesium, phosphorus and sodium pose puzzles
There is also some material with a bright coating in the sample. How Nature reported, the samples were taken under one Scanning microscope examined. It turned out that the light layer was very brittle and had a dark core. The light surface contains Magnesium, Sodium and Phosphor.
That also poses a mystery, says Loretta: “I’ve been looking at meteorites for a long time, but I’ve never come across anything like this.” The combination of these substances would appear in meteorites rarely if ever.
Researchers work with the sample in a protected container
© NASA/Kimberly Allums
NASA needs to build new screwdrivers
Contrary to plan, Osiris-Rex took too much material from Bennu. Instead of 60 Gramm lud the Sin 70,3 Gramm a. Particles also ended up in the outer lid. There will be once more 30 to 70 grams expected, which are also protected from environmental influences.
Because 2 of the 35 screws on the lid are broken, the stones are currently being removed through an opening with tweezers. NASA is currently producing new screwdrivers to loosen the two screws.
The material extracted so far has been sent to the Reflectance Experiment Laboratory (RELAB) in Rhode Island, USA, and to that Natural History Museum sent to London. Spectral analyzes will first be carried out there.
This is how the Bennu sample came back to Earth
© via REUTERS / KEEGAN BARBER/NASA
More water than expected
There were more signatures from blue light wavelengths registered. According to Lauretta, this might indicate that the samples more water contained than previously suspected. However, the researchers cannot yet say what exactly causes the azure blue color in the spectrum.
Approximately 1.000 Bennu-Partikel greater than 0,5 Millimeter have been cataloged so far. As soon as NASA’s screwdrivers are ready for use, researchers will also be able to access this material to advance their investigations. However, this might take time because the tools have to be made from a material that does not contaminate the samples.
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