Water and carbon are considered fundamental elements for life, and finding their presence in space is considered a first step in the search for life in the universe.
On September 24, 2023, NASA announced a discovery of great importance to science: the presence of water and carbon in the dust of the asteroid Bennu. These elements are essential for life, so this discovery represents an important step in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Bennu is a C-type asteroid, which is characterized by its high carbon content. It is located in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The Bennu expedition was a NASA space mission that aimed to collect samples from the asteroid Bennu. The Osiris-Rex probe was launched on September 8, 2016 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Osiris-Rex is the first NASA mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, which despite leaving the sample on Earth, did not land, returning to the asteroid Apophis, in a new mission.
Launched on September 8, 2016 towards an asteroid called Bennu, half a kilometer wide at its equator, which passes near the Earth approximately every six years, which is considered rich in carbon and is a relic of the early days of our solar system, which it arrived after traveling through space for more than two years, on December 3, 2018. After two years orbiting the asteroid, Osiris-Rex collected data and after carrying out several tests and trials, finally in October 2020, in a complicated maneuver, it made gentle contact with the surface of Bennu to collect the samples, using its robotic arm to drill into the surface of the asteroid and collect a sample of dust and rocks.
In May 2021, the ship finally returned to Earth with the mission of delivering the capsule with the collected samples to NASA.
Finally, after two years of travel, Osiris-Rex, upon its return to Earth, released on September 24, 2023, a capsule with the samples collected on the asteroid Bennu, which landed in the Utah desert, United States. four hours after his release.
The first samples processed include the rocks and dust that were on the outside of the sampler head, as well as small amounts from the inside, with the total of the first samples recovered exceeding 60 grams.
All sample analysis and processing work will be carried out in a specialized glove box, under a continuous flow of nitrogen, to avoid contamination from contact with the Earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists believe that Bennu formed at the same time as our planet 4.5 million years ago, and may contain important information about its formation and the emergence of life on Earth. In the first analyzes carried out on the first Bennu samples, scientists have confirmed the presence of water and carbon, which indicates the existence of the elements necessary for life.
These fragments of the asteroid Bennu could help reveal what type of materials came together to form our solar system, as well as valuable information about risks posed by nearby asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
The Bennu expedition was a resounding success and represents an important milestone in space exploration. The mission will provide scientists with valuable information about asteroids, which could help us better understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System.
Osiris-Rex is the third mission that manages to recover material from an asteroid and the first for NASA, after the two successful missions carried out by Japan in 2005 and 2018, in which it managed to bring materials from the asteroids ItoKawa and Ryugu, although both in smaller quantities than those obtained from the asteroid Bennu.
Following the established protocol, NASA will allow the use of a quarter of the sample for scientific purposes carried out by personnel related to NASA, another part will be delivered to facilitate access to scientists around the world and a third part will be saved for future use. research.
In the work planned by scientists around the world, there are countless tests in order to verify the existence of amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, as well as the composition of the rocks and powders obtained, and even dating of the materials to confirm or deny scientists’ suspicions about the origin of the asteroid and its coincidence with the formation of Earth.
The discovery of water and carbon in the dust of the asteroid Bennu has important implications for science and space exploration, for science, this finding confirms that the basic ingredients of life are present in the System Solar, meaning that life could have arisen independently on other bodies in the Solar System, such as asteroids and comets.
Water is essential for life as we know it, since it is necessary for the chemical reactions that sustain living organisms and carbon is another essential element for life, being the main component of organic molecules, which are the building blocks of life.
For space exploration, this discovery opens new possibilities for the search for extraterrestrial life. Scientists can now focus on exploring other bodies in the Solar System that may harbor water and carbon, such as C-type asteroids and comets.
NASA has already announced plans to send missions to other C-type asteroids, such as Ryugu and 16 Psyche, missions that could help scientists better understand how the asteroids formed and whether they could have supported life in the past.
Scientists still have a lot of work to do to better understand the significance of the discovery of water and carbon on Bennu.
The discovery of water and carbon on Bennu is a major milestone in the search for extraterrestrial life. This finding opens up new possibilities for science and space exploration, and brings us one step closer to answering the question of whether we are alone in the universe.
