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Tasked with finding clues about extraction of life on Earth , NASA’sOSIRIS - RExspacecraft scooped up pieces of a rugged , dust - pile asteroid named Bennu in previous 2020 and deliveredthem to Earthabout two months ago . On Monday ( Dec. 11 ) , scientist got their first elaborate verbal description of some of that extraterrestrial collection .
" We definitely have hydrated , organic - rich remnants from the earlysolar system , which is incisively what we were hoping when we first conceptualise this mission almost 20 days ago,“Dante Lauretta , the missionary work ’s principal investigator , tell at the American Geophysical Union ( AGU ) conference being held this workweek in California and online . " I fully expect the cosmochemistry community is go to go to town on this . "
A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Sample material from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right.
Lauretta , a professor of planetary skill and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona , said the bit of the 3 - billion - year - sure-enough asteroid that have been recollect so far are from the stunned lid of the sample ejection seat and are rich in carbon and organic atom . All the particle are very colored in color and dwell of centimeter- and millimeter - sized " hummocky boulders " that have a rough " cauliflower - corresponding texture " , said Lauretta . " They cleave to everything we touch them with . "
The OSIRIS - Rex spacecraft was designed to be in contact with Bennu for six seconds , but itended up plunging 1.6 feet(0.5 meters ) into the asteroid ’s surface for 17 seconds rather . A victim of its own success , the probe dug out so much textile that particles began leaking out of the sample collector ’s point — but they were still protected inside its outer hat . On Monday , Lauretta blamed a 1.3 - inch ( 3.5 curium ) stone that appeared to have jammed open a small-scale flutter on the head and have the material escape into the lid .
Two faulty fasteners continue toprevent technician from removing the lidto access and catalog the bulk of the take in sampling that ’s still trammel within the head . While they wait for fresh peter to be O.K. for function on the cherished John Rock , they are using tweezers to pick tiny careen through the part open tizzy , totaling the collected textile to 70.3 gramme ( 0.07 kg ) — higher than the predicted 60 grams ( 0.06 kg ) .
Some of that material was ship for phantasmal analysis at the NASA - substantiate Reflectance Experiment Laboratory ( RELAB ) facility in Rhode Island , while another hatful wassent to the Natural History Museum in London . Initial findings using spectroscopy , a scientific proficiency that reveals a material ’s makeup by study how it reflects different wavelengths of light source , show a dominant apparitional signature in blue-blooded . This sapphire hue is presently unexplained but may think of the infinite rock contain even more water than scientists ab initio predicted , Lauretta said , adding that more result will be shared at a scientific confluence next spring .
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The fabric also hosts high-pitched amounts of magnesium , sodium and phosphorus , a compounding that so far puzzles the squad .
" I ’ve been look at meteorite for a long time and I ’ve never come up across anything like that , " said Lauretta . " It ’s a nous - scratcher correctly now . What is this stuff ?
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