In the London Museum of Natural History delivered 100 mg of dark dust and granules from asteroid Benn, located 200 million miles from the ground. The most valuable material has the age of 4.6 billion years, which corresponds to the period of origin of the solar system. Scientists are preparing to reveal his secrets.
Unique material was obtained during the mission of NASA Osiris-Rex: in 2020, the spacecraft was briefly landed on asteroid Bennu, and in September 2023, dust samples and granules were delivered to the ground.
Preliminary analyzes conducted by NASA researchers showed that the asteroid particles are rich in carbon and water, and part of the carbon is associated with organic compounds. Scientists plan to study samples for a decade in order to understand how the solar system was formed and whether asteroids played a key role in the delivery of water to Earth and other planets.
One of the central tasks for scientists will be an analysis of hydrogen isotopes in Bennu water to find out whether any of them coincide with those that are in the oceans of the Earth.
The first two years of research in the museum will be concentrated on non-destructive tests, such as X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy, to learn more about the mineral composition and structure of Benn. The largest grains in the sample have the size of the order of millimeters, and the smallest are just dust particles.