Asteroid Bennu  and OSIRIS-REx Mission 

GS 3 – SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Context: A recent study has confirmed that the Bennu asteroid samples brought to Earth contain organic compounds essential for life, along with remnants of an ancient water-rich environment.

Major Highlights

• The material was collected in 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and returned to Earth in 2023.
• Early analysis revealed the presence of high-carbon content and water molecules.
• The latest study has detected:
• Sodium-rich minerals and amino acids (building blocks of life).
• Ammonia-based nitrogen and organic material that originated in space (not from Earth contamination).
• Salt deposits left behind by evaporated water, suggesting Bennu’s parent asteroid once had liquid water pockets.
  Further testing is required to deepen our understanding of asteroid compositions and the role of asteroids in seeding life on Earth.

Significance of the Findings

The discovery provides strong evidence that asteroids might have contributed to the origin of life on Earth by delivering essential organic molecules.

About Asteroid Bennu

• Carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid, approximately 500 meters in diameter.
• Formed ~65 million years ago from a 4.5-billion-year-old parent asteroid.
• Classified as a Near-Earth Object (NEO) because it orbits close to Earth every six years.
• NEOs are asteroids that travel within 1.3 AU of the Sun (1 AU = 93 million miles, the average Earth-Sun distance).
• In 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned 122 grams of dust and pebbles from Bennu.

About OSIRIS-REx Mission

• OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) is NASA’s asteroid study and sample-return mission.
• Launched in 2016, it studied Bennu and collected samples, returning them to Earth in 2023.
• After completing its Bennu mission, OSIRIS-REx was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and redirected to study asteroid Apophis.
• This mission has provided groundbreaking insights into the composition of asteroids and their role in planetary evolution!