Scientists Make Ground Breaking Discovery of Carbon and Water in Asteroid Sample

  In one of the latest groundbreaking discoveries related to space, the research scientists of the OSIRIS-REx team have found traces of Carbon and Water on the samples obtained from the asteroid Bennu! This is one of the most important discoveries as Carbon and water are believed to be the essential ingredients for life.

OSIRIS-REx is NASA's first asteroid return mission. It was launched in 2016 and arrived at Bennu late 2018. The asteroid sample recently touched down in the middle of the desert in Utah, while the mothership flew past Earth on its way to another asteroid, Apophis, as part of an extended mission, OSIRIS-APEX.

Picture of Asteroid Bennu taken by OSIRIS-REx
Source: NASA

When it landed, the soil on the asteroid Bennu was so porous that the probe just sunk through the soil. This helped it get more samples than planned. However, due to a malfunction in the collecting unit, some of the dust and rocks escaped into space, but most of the samples were saved.

Why is this Important?

This is considered to be a very important discovery as all known forms of life are carbon-based and require water to survive. So, this could be a place where microbial life could have existed in the past.

Also, this asteroid could help us in figuring out how life initially began on Earth! This is because scientists think that such asteroids could have brought the different elements for life to Earth. 

That is all for this post. Readers, give your views about what this find can mean for space exploration and the search for life, in the comments section.

Cheers,

Aarav Iyer

References:

(1) https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/category/osiris-apex/

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx

(3) https://www.space.com/osiris-rex-bennu-asteroid-sample-carbon-water