The first analyzes of the sample from the asteroid Bénou, which returned to Earth on September 24, contain water, NASA revealed Wednesday morning.
Only analyzes by spectrography and tomography could be carried out, indicated Dante Lauretta, scientific leader of the OSIRIS-REx mission. This did not make it possible to identify any molecules other than water, in solid form, and carbon.
But the objective of 60 grams of material from Bénou is well and truly exceeded, indicated Mr. Lauretta, who participated in an assembly with the public in Houston, broadcast by NASA TV.
Canada will inherit 4% of this equipment because it provided a laser altimeter for OSIRIS-REx. The Bénou samples will be stored in Saint-Hubert from 2024, in a facility still being prepared.
These samples will be studied “for generations,” said Eileen Stansbery, head of astromaterials at NASA. “We will eventually be able to analyze them with instruments that have not yet been invented,” said M.me Stansbery. Even today, NASA receives hundreds of requests for samples for analyzes of lunar soil reported by the Apollo missions.
OSIRIS-REx (an acronym for “Regolith Explorer for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Mineral Resource Identification and Security”), launched in 2016, reached the asteroid Bénou in 2018. After two years of observations, samples were collected in 2020.
Benu was chosen because it belongs to a type of asteroid that contains the basic materials of the solar system, and also because there is a small chance that it will impact Earth by 2300 (less than 0 .05%).