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An Earth - threaten asteroid may be the last thing you need to see — unless it ’s in the confines of a museum . Today ( Nov. 3 ) , the Smithsonian ’s National Museum of Natural History revealed the first public display of a sample distribution pick up from the asteroid Bennu , whichNASAdeems a " potentially dangerous object . "
The sample — 3.5 to 8.8 oz. ( 100 to 250 gramme ) of rocky space debris collect by the OSIRIS - king spacecraft — is think to contain some of the early precursors to life and is the first glob of a outer space stone ever grabbed by a NASA commission .
NASA scientists opening the OSIRIS-REx sample lid after the capsul’s return to Earth.
NASA scientists first revealed the sample on Oct. 11 after it hurtled back to Earthaboard the OSIRIS - male monarch capsuleat speed of up to 27,000 mph ( 43,000 km / h ) . After a seven - year , 4 billion - mile ( 6.4 million kilometers ) round trip , the capsule deploy its parachute and safely shore in the Utah desert before being transport to Johnson Space Center in Houston , where scientist began analyzing its contents for sign oflife beyond our planet .
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" The OSIRIS - king mission is an incredible scientific accomplishment that foretell to shed light on what makes our major planet unique,”Kirk Johnson , the Sant director of the National Museum of Natural story in Washington , D.C. , enjoin in a assertion . " With the help of our partners at NASA , we are proud to put one of these momentous sample distribution on show to the public for the first clock time . "
Bennu is apotentially wild asteroidthat has a1 - in-2,700 chanceof affect Earth in the year 2182 — the highest betting odds of any live space object . But the scientists are more interested in what ’s trapped inside the infinite rock music : the possible extraterrestrial herald of living on Earth .
" This is the large carbon - racy asteroid sampling ever deliver to Earth , " NASA AdministratorBill Nelsonsaid ata news conferenceupon the sample ’s income tax return . " Carbon and water system molecules are exactly the constituent we wanted to find . They ’re crucial elements in the formation of our own satellite , and they ’re choke to assist us determine the origins of elements that could have lead to life sentence . "
Earth ’s piss is old than the major planet itself and was probably brought here by star-shaped andcomet impacts . But piss likely was n’t the only material asteroid land to Earth ; the building blocks of life likely hitch a drive on a blank space rock , too . Bennu is a B - eccentric asteroid , which means it contains mellow quantity ofcarbonand , potentially , many of the primordial mote present when life come forth on Earth .
Some of these building occlusion — including U , one of the nucleobases forRNA — were recentlyfound on the asteroid Ryuguby the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft , which pass to Earth with its rock sample in 2020 . OSIRIS - king commission scientist are hoping to find other possible precursor for Earth ’s biological science inside the Bennu sampling .
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The sample was collectedafter nearly two years of searchingfor a landing internet site on Bennu ’s craggy Earth’s surface . Upon contact with the asteroid , OSIRIS - REx fired a burst of nitrogen from its Touch - and - Go Sample - Acquisition Mechanism — to both stick the landing and foreclose the craft from settle through the asteroid .
The good time sent rocks and rubble careening around the craft , and some of that rocky debris landed in a case shot aboard OSIRIS - REx . A follow - up blast of OSIRIS - REx ’s thrusters later lifted it from Bennu , and the spacecraft completed a number of overpass before leave the asteroid for Earth in May 2021 .
The Smithsonian is the first museum to publicly display a sample from Bennu , alongside the return OSIRIS - REx capsule and the Atlas V 411 rocket that launched it . The display is locate in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology , Gems and Minerals . Researchers at the Smithsonian will also analyse another sample behind the scenes for signal of life ’s herald .
" Having now returned to Earth without being exposed to our H2O - rich atmosphere or the life that occupy every corner of our major planet , the samples of Bennu hold the hope to state us about the water system and organics before aliveness came to form our unique planet,“Tim McCoy , the museum ’s curator of meteorites , who ferment on the OSIRIS - male monarch mission , say in the statement .
