Samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu arrived on Earth on September 24, 2023. From here, the analyses by NASA scientists began: the rocks collected in the Osiris-Rex mission are revealing more and more details about the origins of this celestial object.
“An ancient, small, primitive ocean world.” The statement published by NASA thus defines the planet from which, according to initial analyses, theasteroid Bennuscientific name 101955 Determination. The United States Space Agency has released new information on rock samples collected on the asteroid in the mission of Osiris-King and arrived on Earth in September 2023.
In the latest analyses, in particular, a specific element has emerged surprised the researchers. The sample also contained some magnesium phosphate and sodium, an element that had not been detected by the probe that landed on the asteroid. An element that is essential for the presence of life on a planet.
The Role of Phosphates in Building Life
According to NASA, the water-soluble phosphates they are part of the “biochemistry of all life known on Earth today.” What strikes scientists is the sample purity: “The magnesium-sodium phosphate detected in the Bennu sample stands out for its purity, i.e. the lack of other materials. There is no precedent anywhere else meteorite sample”.
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These ingredients therefore confirm the theory according to which Bennu would break away from a wet worldan ocean planet that is likely long gone: “The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggest a watery past for the asteroid.”
The Osiris-Rex Mission
Il September 24, 2023 the Osiris-Rex mission capsule has entered theEarth’s atmosphere. A metal container that for manga fans is quite similar to the spaceships with which the Saiyans traveled in Space. Inside there was no monkey-tailed warrior but some fragments of an asteroid recovered with a mission that had begun years earlier.
The Osiris-Rex mission began in October 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was a very complex mission, given that the probe landed on the asteroid Bennu only four years later, inOctober 2020. Here she has collected little more than 121 grams of rocks then brought back to Earth.
