Rocks and other samples from the asteroid Bennu sent by the US spacecraft OSIRIS-REX (provided and jointly provided by NASA)
WASHINGTON (Kyodo News) – On the 11th, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled rock and other samples brought back from the asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Initial analysis found evidence that it contains abundant water and carbon, and expressed hope that “we may find the raw materials for life on Earth.”
The probe departed from Earth in 2016. In 2020, samples were collected from Bennu, approximately 320 million kilometers away, and on September 24 of this year, a capsule containing the samples was released into the sky above Earth. The capsule landed in the Utah desert. NASA and other agencies transported it to Texas and continued dismantling it.
Japan is providing the United States with some of the samples from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. In the future, we will receive samples from Bennu and analyze them by comparing the two asteroids.
