Asteroid Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, is chock-full of different science discoveries and has acted like a time capsule for matter from our early Solar System. The latest findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), analyze carbonaceous samples collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
In the samples analyzed, the research team at Stony Brook University in New York uncovered the chemical compositions of materials from our early Solar System. According to the study, these materials are distributed across three chemically distinct organic-mineral domains, indicating that water altered the asteroid Bennu.
“These findings carry broader significance for planetary science and astrobiology,” said professor Mehmet Yesiltas in a press release.
Why Asteroid Bennu Is Important
Bennu sample OREX-800066-3 under near-field optical microscope during nanoscale infrared analysis. The metallic tip (top center) of the scanning near-field optical microscope probes the sample’s chemical composition at ~20-nanometer resolution, revealing distinct organic-mineral domains within this Bennu fragment returned to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in September 2023.
(Image Credit: Mehmet Yesiltas)
There isn’t much evidence of our early Solar System readily available for scientific study, though some of these materials can be found on Earth. For example, past research on these cosmic materials has been conducted on meteorites that have fallen to Earth’s surface; however, these materials risk contamination by Earth’s atmosphere as they enter it.
Asteroid Bennu is different, though. According to the study, asteroid Bennu is one of the best-preserved remnants of the early Solar System, which is why the samples collected from the OSIRIS-REx mission are so valuable to science.
From the samples, the team got a better understanding of how a variety of organic materials, water, and minerals interacted and formed in the early days of our Solar System.
Read More: Asteroid Bennu’s Surface Contains Cracked Boulders Instead of Smooth Beaches, Making It Rapidly Lose Heat
Studying Asteroid Bennu
Yesiltas and the team analyzed OREX-800066-3, a Bennu sample collected and returned to Earth by OSIRIS-REx in September 2023, according to the press release. Yesiltas and the rest of the research group were among the first teams to receive a piece of Bennu for study.
For their analysis, the team used nanoscale infrared and Raman spectroscopy to characterize the chemical composition of the asteroid sample. The team characterized the sample’s chemical composition at spatial resolutions down to about 20 nanometers. During this process, the sample was not exposed to any of Earth’s air to ensure that none of the sensitive chemical bonds were altered.
The results of the analysis found that at the nanoscale, the distribution of asteroid Bennu’s minerals and organic matter was not uniform and occurred in three chemically distinct and recurring organic-mineral domains.
How Materials Interacted with Asteroid Bennu
Per the study, one of the domains was rich in carbonate minerals while another was rich in aliphatic organic compounds. The last was rich in nitrogen-containing organic compounds. These results suggest that liquid water altered asteroid Bennu through different interactions at various locations, rather than by a uniform process.
The study results are helping researchers gain a better understanding of how minerals, water, and organic matter interact with materials from our infant Solar System.
“[The findings] demonstrate survival of chemically labile, nitrogen-bearing organics through aqueous alteration on a small solar system body has direct implications for long-standing questions about how organic complexity is built up and preserved in primitive planetary materials,” Yesiltas said in the press release.
“By extension, it may reveal how organics relevant to prebiotic chemistry may have been delivered to early Earth via carbonaceous asteroids and may have played a role in the chemical processes that might have eventually led to life,” Yesiltas concluded in the release.
Read More: Asteroid Bennu Samples Carry Mysterious Space Gum, Sugars, and a Ton of Stardust
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