“This is amazing”: scientists have obtained dark dust from an asteroid 4.6 billion years old

“A little treasure that takes us back to the beginning of the solar system”

Scientists are studying dark dust from the asteroid Bennu, whose age is estimated at 4.6 billion years. London's Natural History Museum is preparing to analyze pristine material collected during NASA's Osiris-Rex mission.

Photo: nasa.gov

Dark dust and teaspoon-sized granules collected from an asteroid 200 meters from Earth have arrived at the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are preparing to unlock its secrets.

According to The Guardian, researchers from the museum obtained 100 mg of primordial material, which dates back 4.6 billion years to the birth of the solar system, after NASA's Osiris-Rex mission stopped at the asteroid Bennu in 2020 and returned samples to Earth in September.

The spacecraft briefly “landed” on the asteroid Bennu, which has a 1 in 1,750 chance of colliding with Earth within the next 300 years, and collected more than 60 grams of pristine material, the largest amount of extraterrestrial material yet , delivered from space since the Apollo program.

«It is amazing. “It’s like a little treasure trove that takes us back to the beginning of the solar system,” said Dr. Ashley King, a planetary scientist who will work with asteroid dust samples at the museum. “I can't wait to get my hands on them and see what we can learn about the early solar system.”

Preliminary analysis by NASA researchers found that the asteroid fragments are rich in carbon and water, with some of the carbon bound to organic compounds. Scientists expect to study the samples for decades as they seek to understand how the solar system formed and whether asteroids delivered significant amounts of water to Earth and other planets.

One key area of ​​research will be the analysis of hydrogen isotopes in water bound to Bennu to see if any of them matched isotopes found in Earth's oceans, The Guardian notes.

Beyond questions about our cosmic origins, there are more existential questions such as how to deflect or destroy asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth. At a third of a mile wide, Bennu is much smaller than the six-mile wide asteroid that caused disaster for the dinosaurs, but would still cause enormous damage if it crashed into Earth.

The first two years of research at the Natural History Museum will focus on non-destructive tests such as X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy to learn about Bennu's mineral composition and structure. The largest fragments in the sample are on the order of millimeters wide, while the smallest are just dust particles.

“It doesn't look like a lot of material, but there's a lot to work with,” says Dr. Ashley King. The museum houses one of the world's leading collections of meteorites, and staff are well accustomed to handling small quantities of extremely valuable materials from space.

Unlike meteorites, which were burned and broken up as they passed through the Earth's atmosphere, dust and Bennu's rocky fragments were brought to Earth in pristine form, giving scientists a rare glimpse of an unaltered asteroid.

“Weighing no more than a teaspoon, this material will keep us busy for years to come as we study every grain of it.” to understand its composition and structure and see what secrets we can unlock,” predicts Professor Sarah Russell, head of the planetary materials group at the Natural History Museum.