NASA showed regolith from the asteroid Bennu for the first time (4 photos + 1 video)

According to experts from the American space agency, they found exactly what they were looking for in the soil samples.





NASA showed samples from the soil of the asteroid Bennu and announced that it had found traces of carbon and water in them, which could help scientists find answers to the question of the origin of life on Earth.

"These are critical elements in the formation of our own planet, and they can help us determine the origin of the elements that may have given rise to life," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.



The scientific director of the mission, Dante Loretta, told reporters that experts are now studying soil particles that are located outside the main capsule with regolith. How much material was delivered to Earth is still unknown, but it definitely exceeds the stated 60 grams of regolith. According to Lorette, the sampling mechanism has not yet been completely opened, only its head part, but the amount of material found there gives hope that there is at least 250 grams in the main capsule.

According to NASA plans, studying the materials obtained from Bennu will take at least two years. Then the Americans will give 30% of the regolith to be studied by specialists from universities and space agencies.





"Initial analysis showed that the resulting samples contain a lot of water in the form of hydrated clay minerals and carbon," the head of NASA said. The carbon concentration in the soil samples was reported to be 4.7%

Dante Loretta especially emphasizes the scientific significance of the mission. The scientist is confident that traces of the presence of water in the soil from the asteroid will definitely shed light on the origin of life on Earth.

"The Earth is habitable because we have oceans, lakes and rivers and rain, and all because clay minerals like what we saw on Bennu fell on Earth 4-4.5 billion years ago. What we see is how water combined with solid material eventually ended up on planets, probably not just Earth,” Loretta said.



We add that the mission to the asteroid Bennu started in 2016. The OSIRIS-REx probe entered orbit of the cosmic body in 2018; for two years the device studied the asteroid from orbit and prepared for the landing and soil collection operation, which was successfully carried out in October 2020. The probe's return to Earth began in the spring of 2022. The capsule with the material landed at the calculated location at the Pentagon test site on September 24, 2023.



NASA press conference following the successful mission to the asteroid Bennu