Seven years after the United States space agency launched it into space, the Osiris-REx spacecraft facilitated the return to Earth this Sunday of a chest that brought pristine samples collected on the asteroid Bennu. This scientific adventure should allow researchers to study the matter it is made of and the physical properties of that object on the other side of the solar system.
There is hope that this investigation could provide insight into the mechanism of planet formation and even the origin of life. “It means opening a time capsule in our ancient solar system,” said the site’s narrator. “Another chapter in space history begins,” he stressed.
It is the first time this milestone has been reached. The crucial operation, after landing in the Utah desert, was to ensure that terrestrial materials did not contaminate the sample.
Once the parachute was deployed for the object to land, applause erupted at NASA. It was only the beginning. Something essential was still missing, but that was already a good sign to be able to open that box of secrets.
Applause was widespread at the end of the return trip, completed three minutes earlier than planned, before eleven in the morning on the east coast.
Then the recovery operation began for that container that allegedly carries a quarter kilo of rocks and dust from Bennu. This asteroid is located 322 million kilometers from Earth. It has a length of 130 meters. It is estimated that it formed in the first ten million years of the existence of the solar system.
From the website it was shown how the black chest fell, how it was deposited on the desert, not far from where the red and white parachute had been left.
Shortly afterward, a helicopter arrived to recover the capsule. The teams took extreme precautions in their approach.
Two people approached wearing gas masks. They checked the environment and the chest, which was still at a very high temperature. Once they certified that it did not release dangerous chemicals, they removed their masks and proceeded to cover the object. Then the rest of the team appeared, until a helicopter took them away. Inside it is expected to find answers about the planetary system.
During the trip orbiting the Earth, the spacecraft released the capsule from a distance of 100,000 kilometers. That device landed, after four hours of solo flight, in a remote area of ??military territory, while the mother mother took off another device.
Scientists estimate the capsule contains at least a cup of carbon-rich asteroid debris, but they won’t have absolute guarantees until they proceed to open the container. This operation may take several days, according to agency spokespersons.
There are questions about the contents because some of the items spilled and floated away when the spacecraft collected too much material and rocks jammed the lid of the container during collection three years ago.
NASA chose Bennu because it is relatively rich in organic molecules and could help answer one of the great unknowns of science: How did Earth manage to have an abundance of organic molecules and liquid water, two key ingredients for life?
Scientists believe that these molecules could have reached our planet aboard meteorites and, therefore, analyzing the composition of Bennu will help them verify this hypothesis and clarify what role celestial bodies could have played in the origin of life.
In addition to Bennu’s composition, the other reason why scientists chose it is because it has an orbit that is well known, which made it easy for the “Osiris-Rex” mothership to approach to take samples. Specifically, Bennu orbits the sun every 14 months, while rotating every four hours.
Discovered in 1999, Bennu is believed to have formed from fragments of a much larger asteroid following a collision. It is half a kilometer wide, about the height of the Empire State Building, and its rough, black surface is littered with large rocks.
In addition, there is a hypothesis that Bennu will collide with Earth in 159 years and, although this possibility is only 0.057 percent, this NASA mission would also serve to see how to change the trajectory of the asteroid if necessary, he told EFE. the Argentine Lucas Paganini, planetary scientist at NASA.
