NASA revealed the first sample collected from the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu to the public on Friday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.. The sample was collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission. 

The sample contains abundant water and carbon, both of which are vital materials involved in the formation of Earth. This finding lends more weight to the hypothesis that foundational blocks for life on Earth was seeded from outer space. 

The sample is from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu. Bennu has a cumulative 1-in-1,750 chance of impacting Earth between 2178 and 2290 with the greatest risk being on 24 September 2182. 

The sample is an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams. Other samples will later go on display at the Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson and Space Center Houston, adjacent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where most of the Bennu samples reside.

Studying the samples from Bennu could help scientists understand: 

• Planet formation The samples could provide information about how planets, including Earth, formed. 
• Origin of organics and water The samples could help scientists understand the origin of organics and water that led to life on Earth. 
• Potentially hazardous asteroids The samples could provide information about potentially hazardous asteroids. 
• Whether Earth was born wet The amount of water on Bennu could tell us whether Earth was born wet, or born dry and then water was brought to it. 
• Which building blocks were delivered by meteorites The samples could help scientists address the question of which building blocks were delivered by meteorites.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission was the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. The mission launched in 2016, reached Bennu in October 2020, and returned samples to Earth on September 24, 2023. The samples were found to contain water and carbon, which are key ingredients that helped life begin on Earth. 

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is a robotic spacecraft that has been on a seven-year mission to collect and return samples from an asteroid called Bennu. Bennu was chosen for the OSIRIS-REx project because of its composition, and because it’s relatively close to Earth. 

After delivering the sample, the spacecraft began a new mission as OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and headed toward an encounter with asteroid Apophis in 2029.

The sample from asteroid Bennu contains abundant water and carbon, which are key ingredients that helped life begin on Earth. The sample also contains nearly 5% carbon by weight, which is the central element of life. 

The sample includes crumbly rocks and dust. The water is in the form of hydrated clay minerals. The carbon is present as both minerals and organic molecules. 

The sample supports the hypothesis that celestial objects such as comets, asteroids, and meteorites that bombarded early Earth seeded the young planet with the primordial ingredients for life.

Here are some facts about Bennu: 

• Size Bennu is about 500 meters in equatorial diameter and 510 meters in polar diameter. It has an average speed of 63,000 miles per hour. 
• Shape Bennu is droplet-shaped and made of gravel and boulders held together by microgravity. 
• Rotation Bennu rotates on its axis every 4.3 hours. 
• Orbit Bennu orbits the sun every 1.2 years. Its orbital path is tilted about 5 degrees relative to Earth’s. 
• Approach to Earth Bennu comes close to Earth every six years, although its exact distance from Earth during these approaches varies. 
• Composition Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid. Scientists believe that it might contain water molecules locked in minerals. 
• History Bennu’s rocks are thought to date to the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago.

Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid in the Apollo group. It’s made up of a loose collection of rocks and dust that are crumbly. The asteroid is 500 meters or 1,640 feet in diameter. 

Bennu is a special kind of carbon-rich asteroid that’s believed to contain organic compounds as old as the solar system itself. Early telescope observations of Bennu suggested that it likely contains organic molecules similar to those that sparked life on an embryonic Earth. 

Bennu is a small, near-Earth asteroid that passes close to Earth about every six years. It was the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to collect an asteroid sample and bring it to Earth. 

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