A NASA spacecraft finds water for life on the asteroid Bennu
This image shows the asteroid Bennu, on November 16, 2018, taken by NASA. After two years of chasing, a NASA spacecraft has reached the asteroid Bennu, its first visitor in billions of years (NASA/AP)
A NASA spacecraft has unveiled its first and biggest discovery of the ingredients for water on an asteroid.
Scientists hope that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will shed light on the mystery surrounding the asteroid Bennu, an asteroid the size of a skyscraper, which may contribute to discovering evidence of the origins of life on Earth.
The spacecraft did not reach the asteroid until the past few days, but the discovery of water is a major achievement that scientists hope will be met by more discoveries in the future.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which flew by the asteroid, found traces of hydrogen and oxygen molecules on its rocky surface. They are part of the water composition, which indicates the possibility of life there.
The probe was launched on a mission to bring samples of the asteroid to Earth for study in 2016. The asteroid Bennu, which is approximately 500 meters wide, orbits the sun, at a distance approximately the same as the distance between Earth and the sun. There are concerns among scientists about the possibility of the asteroid Bennu colliding with Earth in the late 22nd century.
Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona, said: , principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission, said in a phone interview, "We have found minerals rich in water since the beginning of the solar system, and it is exactly the same as the sample that we went there to find and bring back to Earth."
Asteroids are among the remnants of the formation of the solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists believe that the collision of asteroids and comets with the Earth, in its early beginnings, may have led to organic compounds and water that endowed the planet with the seed of life, and the atomic analysis of the samples of the asteroid Bennu may provide key evidence supporting this assumption.
Amy Simon, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, confirmed in a statement that "when the spacecraft brings samples of this material back to Earth in 2023, Scientists will gain a treasure trove of new information about the history and evolution of our solar system."
"Scientists are really desperate to understand the role these carbon-rich asteroids played in transporting water to early Earth, making it habitable," Lauretta added.
OSIRIS-REx will approach the asteroid Bennu within 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) later this month, entering the asteroid's gravitational zone and analyzing its terrain. From there, the spacecraft will gradually begin to reduce its orbit around the asteroid to within 6 feet (2 meters) of its surface, and then its robotic arm can grab a sample from the asteroid by July 2020.
After that, the spacecraft will return to Earth, launch a capsule carrying an asteroid sample, and parachute into the Utah desert in September 2023.
Source: websites