Bennu – It all started with a theory
A theory, that is, of how our entire solar system was created. From the vast cloud of hydrogen, helium and dust, to the supernova that surely destabilized that cloud and lead to the creation of our Sun. Small grains of dust flash heated into small molten pellets that cooled, collected and began to form asteroids and planets.
One of those was a proto-planet that started out as a rubble pile of rock, metal, ice and organics. Yup … ice and organics. And because of the formation of Jupiter, and more importantly its gravity, many of the asteroids were hurled toward the sun. One or some of them hit the proto-planet and a large piece of it broke off to become the asteroid we call Bennu.
It is a fascinating theory, and is very well documented by the YouTube video “NASA | Asteroid Bennu’s Journey” – the link will take you directly to that video if you would like to see the history/theory of how Bennu came to be.
But that’s not really the point of this article. The point is we are already preparing for a mission launch to Bennu and in two different articles, NASA is telling us what’s next, and what we think we will find.
The really exciting part is if the above theory is correct, then Bennu is a time capsule of information from possibly as far back as the birth of our solar system. Given that, it is no wonder why scientists want to know as much as they can about it.
And that is the topic of the first article below titled “OSIRIS-REx Team Prepares for Next Step in NASA’s Asteroid Sample Return Mission”. I highly recommend taking the time to read it, as it discusses the sequence of events from launch to bringing a sample back to Earth for study.
The second article is from Phys.org and makes a Bold prediction that we will find organics there. Again, I highly recommend reading this article as well.
But I ask … what if we do find microbial life on an Asteroid?
Ponder that as you read and share the articles below …
With launch only 15 months away, NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) team is preparing to deliver instruments for integration with the spacecraft that will travel to, and collect a sample from, an asteroid.
…… OSIRIS-REx will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu and bring a small sample back to Earth for study. The mission is scheduled for launch in September 2016. The spacecraft will reach its asteroid target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023.The spacecraft will carry five instruments from national and international partners. These instruments will be key to mapping and analyzing Bennu’s surface and will be critical in identifying a site from which a sample can be safely retrieved and ultimately returned to Earth.
…… A student experiment called the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) will map elemental abundances on the asteroid. REXIS is a collaboration between the students and faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.“These instruments are essential to accomplishing the mission’s science goals and unlocking the secrets of Bennu,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-Rex at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “I am proud of the dedication to excellence that each of our instrument teams brings to this mission, and I look forward to all that we will discover at the asteroid.”
Source: NASA.gov
To read the full article, please see NASA.gov
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Here is the second article with the Bold statement about organic materials ….
We will find organic materials on Asteroid Bennu, says OSIRIS-REx principal investigator
July 27, 2015 by Tomasz Nowakowski
(Phys.org)—In September 2016, NASA plans to launch its first-ever asteroid sample return mission loaded with tasks that will help us better understand the composition of asteroids, their origin, and possibly even Earth’s origin. The Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission designed to study asteroids, which are the leftover debris from the solar system formation process, could teach us a lot about the history of the sun and planets.
The spacecraft, equipped with scientific instruments to map the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and to detect minerals and organic molecules that could be the signs of microbial life, is slated to reach its target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023. It will bring back at least a 2.1-ounce sample to study.
…… The mission’s principal investigator, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the rest of the team are convinced that OSIRIS-REx will succeed in finding organic materials on Bennu.
……. Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid that records the earliest history of our solar system because its composition probably has remained unchanged since it formed some four billion years ago. It could contain natural resources such as water, organics and precious metals—precursors to the origin of life. So could we even find primitive, microbial lifeforms on Bennu?…… “In particular, we are looking to find the areas of Bennu rich in organic molecules to identify possible sample sites of high science value, but the instrument will also help us understand the general composition of Bennu,” Lauretta said. “Besides OVIRS, OSIRIS-REx has four other science instruments on board. They will all survey Bennu to determine its form, composition and make-up.”
…… The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now in the assembly, testing, and launch operations phase. To be fully ready for a demanding trip and scientific operations at its target asteroid, all the instruments need to be thoroughly tested after installation to ensure that they interact properly with all of the other systems on the spacecraft.”OTES was installed in late June and the OVIRS instrument was delivered in early July. OCAMS and REXIS will be installed in late summer and OLA will be delivered in the fall,” Lauretta said.After all the instruments are installed, the spacecraft will then go through system level environmental testing until next May, when it is scheduled to be shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida. There, it will be mated to the Atlas V rocket and readied for our launch in September 2016.
Source: Phys.org
To read the full article, please visit Phys.org