{"id":57934,"date":"2024-05-04T08:33:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T08:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/61f80818-75b5-4e45-bfd1-59500b962f48"},"modified":"2024-05-04T09:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T09:08:22","slug":"im-one-of-the-first-uk-scientists-to-get-a-look-at-the-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-returned-from-space-this-is-what-we-found","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/im-one-of-the-first-uk-scientists-to-get-a-look-at-the-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-returned-from-space-this-is-what-we-found\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m one of the first UK scientists to get a look at the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample returned from space. This is what we found."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Ashley King\n <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 04 May 2024 at 08:33 AM<\/p>

\n\n

The formation of the Solar System was a little like making a cake.<\/p>

A set of ingredients \u2013 in this case, a vast cloud of interstellar gas and dust \u2013 were mixed together over 4.5 billion years to create the Sun, planets and moons that we see today.<\/p>

Planetary scientists like me aim to reconstruct that recipe, from the ingredients of the first solid materials in the protoplanetary disc, through to the evolution of habitable environments like the one we find on Earth.<\/p>

Read our interview with planetary scientist Sara Russell<\/a> on her Bennu analysis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Protoplanetary disc MWC 758. These dusty discs around stars hold the ingredients out of which orbiting planets may eventually form. Credit: ESO\/A. Garufi et al.; R. Dong et al.; ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Why I study asteroids<\/strong><\/h2>

I investigate the origin of the Solar System using asteroids<\/a>, the rocky and metallic leftover building blocks of planets.<\/p>

I\u2019m particularly interested in asteroids that formed in the cold, outer disc, as they retain the primitive composition of the Solar System and accreted complex ices that reacted with the rocky materials within their interiors.<\/p>

One such asteroid, 101955 Bennu, is now on a near-Earth orbit and was recently visited by NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx mission<\/a>.<\/p>

Bennu was selected as the mission target because it holds vital clues about our past, as its dark surface suggests a composition rich in hydrated minerals and carbon, including potentially organic molecules that may have been the precursors to life on Earth.<\/p>

\"A
A view of asteroid Bennu, its striking craters and surface covered in boulders, captured by OSIRIS-REx’s OCAMS (MapCam) instrument on 28 April 2020 from a distance of 10km. Half of Bennu is bathed in sunlight, and half is in shadow. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>

OSIRIS-REx collects its sample<\/strong><\/h2>

The primary aim of OSIRIS-REx was to collect a sample of Bennu and return it to Earth.<\/p>

I held my breath as the spacecraft made a daring sample grab using the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) in October 2020.<\/p>

Samples returned from known planetary bodies are a crucial tool in our efforts to understand the Solar System.<\/p>

\"The
The moment just before OSIRIS-REx touches down on asteroid Bennu’s surface to collect its sample, 20 October 2020. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Unlike most of the 70,000 or so meteorites in our collections, returned samples have geological context \u2013 we know which body they come from and where and when they were collected.<\/p>

They\u2019re also preserved in a pristine state, unmodified by the terrestrial environment.<\/p>

Our laboratories on Earth offer a level of analysis that often can\u2019t be matched by any instrument on a spacecraft, while sophisticated curation enables samples to be analysed for many decades after the mission has ended.<\/p>

\"The
The sample return capsule from NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx shortly after touching down in the desert on 24 September 2023, Utah, USA. Credit: NASA\/Keegan Barber<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Delivering the sample<\/strong><\/h2>

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered its precious cargo to the Utah desert on 24 September 2023<\/a>.<\/p>

The Sample Return Capsule (SRC) was retrieved from the desert and quickly transferred to a specially designed curation facility at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas.<\/p>

\"Dr
Dr Sharif Ahmed from Diamond Light Source and Dr Ashley King from the Natural History Museum with the Bennu asteroid sample collected by OSIRIS-REx. Credit: Diamond Light Source \/ NHS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

As a member of the small Quick Look team tasked with carrying out the very first analyses of the samples, I was incredibly lucky to be at JSC.<\/p>

I celebrated along with the rest of the team \u2013 many of whom had been waiting nearly 20 years for this moment \u2013 as the lid of the SRC was lifted to reveal a coating of fine, black dust on the outside of the TAGSAM.<\/p>

\"A
A sample of Bennu being studied at the Natural History Museum. \u00a9The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>

About a teaspoonful of the dust, which was expected following the disturbance of Bennu\u2019s surface during the sample collection, was handed over to the Quick Look team, who got to work characterising its composition using beams of electrons and, my favourite, X-rays.<\/p>

We presented the first results from the Quick Look at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, showing that Bennu samples consist of abundant hydrated silicates (imagine something like clay), carbonate minerals (similar to limescale in a kettle) and biologically relevant elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur.<\/p>

\"Samples
Samples of asteroid Bennu stored in a nitrogen environment at the UK’s Natural History Museum. Credit: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Our initial findings are in good agreement with observations of the asteroid by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, and support the hypothesis that Bennu formed in the outer Solar System and records reactions between water and rock.<\/p>

However, analysis has only really just begun, with 121.6g (4.3 oz) of material retrieved from inside the TAGSAM, samples are now being sent to more than 200 scientists across the world, aiming to reveal the secrets of the Solar System.<\/p>

This article appeared in the May 2024 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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