The Bennu asteroid samples returned to Earth two months in the past proceed to baffle scientists

The primary evaluation of the Bennu asteroid samples that NASA delivered to Earth earlier this 12 months has revealed some fascinating outcomes. We’d already decided that Bennu has an abundance of carbon and water, however a brand new evaluation of the samples has left scientists scratching their heads.

In response to a publish shared on Nature, scientists working with the brand new samples from Bennu have been significantly shocked by the quantity of magnesium, sodium, and phosphate discovered within the pores and skin of the chunks taken from Bennu. It is a composition not often seen in meteorites, and it has left scientists a bit baffled.

Whereas scientists aren’t fairly positive what to make of those Bennu samples, there’s nonetheless lots of work to be executed relating to analyzing them absolutely. For starters, we nonetheless don’t have entry to the guts of the fabric, which lies inside OSIRIS-REx’s pattern return canister.

NASA is at the moment making a particular screwdriver that may let scientists take away the final of the screws holding that a part of the canister closed, giving entry to the total breadth of the Bennu samples collected just a few years in the past. For now, although, there are many items that have been caught exterior the canister, together with a large 3.5-centimeter-long rock, the largest collected at Bennu up to now.

This explicit rock truly jammed the spacecraft’s assortment mechanism when it was sucked up. It’s a darkish shade, virtually to the purpose of being black, Nature reviews, and it has a bluish sheen. It’s similar to the boulders discovered on the floor of the asteroid, scientists say.

The opposite chunks that have been captured by the spacecraft are lighter in shade however nonetheless simply as baffling for scientists who’re working to research them. Up to now, astronomers and curators have cataloged greater than 1,000 Bennu samples, the report states. And that’s solely counting these which are at the least half a millimeter in dimension.