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Natural History Museum scientists to study largest ever sample collected from an asteroid
Largest ever sample collected from an asteroid to return to Earth
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer), the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, will return to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023 with material from asteroid Bennu, which will be made available to Natural History Museum scientists to study.
OSIRIS-REx’s sample return capsule will touch down in the Utah western desert. Shortly after its arrival, a specially-designed curation facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center will distribute portions of asteroid Bennu to an international analysis team of over 200 scientists from more than 35 globally distributed institutions, including the Natural History Museum, London.
Asteroid Bennu is a 4.5-billion-year-old remnant of our early Solar System and scientists believe it can help us learn how planets formed and evolved. The carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid serves as a time capsule from the earliest history of our Solar System and it is anticipated that the sample will provide important clues that could help us to understand the origin of organics and water that may have led to life on Earth.
The sample returned from Bennu by OSIRIS-REx is of huge significance as it has been collected directly from the asteroid in space meaning there has been almost zero contamination. In comparison meteorites that fall to Earth are quickly contaminated from the second they make contact with our atmosphere. This means Bennu can give us an unspoiled glimpse into the past.
Ashley King, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Natural History Museum, said, ‘OSIRIS-REx spent over two years studying asteroid Bennu, finding evidence for organics and minerals chemically altered by water. These are crucial ingredients for understanding the formation of planets like Earth, so we’re delighted to be among the first researchers to study samples returned from Bennu.
‘We think the Bennu samples might be similar in composition to the recent Winchcombe meteorite fall, but largely uncontaminated by the terrestrial environment and even more pristine.’
Prof Sara Russell, Senior Research Lead, Natural History Museum, said ‘We can’t wait to see what Bennu looks like, and to spend the next months and years finding out what it can tell us about the formation of the Solar System and about our own origins.
‘One of the wonderful things about sample return missions is that Bennu will be around on Earth now for centuries to come, so future generations can use them to answer their own novel scientific questions.’
The team at the Natural History Museum includes Ashley King, Helena Bates, Paul Schofield, Natasha Almeida, Catherine Harrison, and Sara Russell, who will investigate the minerals and chemical composition of the samples to unpick the geological history of Bennu using the Museum’s world-leading laboratories.
Notes to editors
Natural History Media contact: Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5654 / 07799690151 Email: press@nhm.ac.uk
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