End of the mission of OSIRIS-REx. Will it bring back traces of life from the asteroid Bennu?

Despite the astronomical cost, the shipment is not large, weighing only a few tens of kilograms. With a little luck, the delivery company can deliver it to your home. Most of this weight is a cocoon encasing priceless contents, part of a kilogram of material taken from the asteroid Bennu. The cocoon was necessary for the sample to travel safely 1.9 billion km journey (this is six times longer than the distance from Earth to the Moon) and they would remain intact upon entering our atmosphere quickly More than 43 thousand km per hour

Thus the historical mission ends Osiris-Rex – Sending a probe to an asteroid He specifiesAnd take samples of it and return them to Earth. This effort has taken seven years (the probe was launched in September 2016) and has cost so far 1.16 billion US dollars, which is about 5 billion Polish zlotys. Dr. Jakub Siesela, a geochemist from the Institute of Geosciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, jokes that it would be “The most expensive geological specimen on Earth”.

this mission Double historical. Not only because this is only the third time in history that samples from an asteroid have been returned to Earth (the Japanese have done it twice before). The significance of the trip to Bennu and back lies in the amount of material that tightly envelops the aforementioned cocoon. Scientists from the Land of the Rising Sun managed to bring samples weighing a few grams to our home planet. The US space agency NASA has set itself the goal of returning At least 60 gramsAnd the hope is so The capsule will contain up to four times more.

So, there’s a real chance he’ll fall to the ground tomorrow A quarter kilogram of an asteroid. Scientists are rubbing their hands. – There will now be at least several hundred grams of this material, and perhaps a kilogram, enough to conduct a whole range of geological studies. Previous specimens weighing several grams did not allow scientists to fully extend their wings, Cecilla says.

We have already detected traces of life on asteroids

Why spend so much money on such small amounts of material for analysis? The most important of which is research About the beginnings of life in space. We have already seen great success on this front.

In February of this year, the results of the analysis of a sample brought from the Ryugu asteroid (this is the target of the Japanese Hayabusa-2 mission) were published in “Science”, one of the most prestigious scientific journals. And it turns out it contains a lot The building blocks needed to create life; Scientists were able to identify Among others 15 amino acids (i.e. the compounds that make up proteins in living organisms, among other things – incl Glycine and alanine) and many other organic compounds, such as Acetic acid.

NASA

This was the moment when the OSIRIS-REx probe collided with the asteroid Bennu on October 20, 2020. The force of the collision threw material into the container. Now the container is returning to Earth, where scientists will study it.

What should be emphasized: This does not mean that there was life on asteroids. This discovery is important because it proves that the ingredients needed to build living organisms can be created in extreme conditions (after all, such an asteroid not only exists in a virtual vacuum, it also has no protective shell to protect it from the harmful radiation coming from it). Sun and space). This tells us that a very long time ago on Earth – when our planet was not as hospitable to living organisms as it is today – The building blocks of life can be successfully created.

Echo Richards

Echo Richards embodies a personality that is a delightful contradiction: a humble musicaholic who never brags about her expansive knowledge of both classic and contemporary tunes. Infuriatingly modest, one would never know from a mere conversation how deeply entrenched she is in the world of music. This passion seamlessly translates into her problem-solving skills, with Echo often drawing inspiration from melodies and rhythms. A voracious reader, she dives deep into literature, using stories to influence her own hardcore writing. Her spirited advocacy for alcohol isn’t about mere indulgence, but about celebrating life’s poignant moments.