NASA's probe finds that the asteroid Bennu has, or has already had, liquid water

A week ago, the OSIRIS-REx probe arrived at the asteroid Bennu, its destination after two years of travel. The probe will look for the ideal location on its surface, from which it will collect soil samples and rocks and lead them to Earth studies. But previously, OSIRIS-REx had already won a victory: he had discovered that there was (or still was) water in the small asteroid.

The mission, led by scientists from the University of Arizona,), showing that the two probe spectrometers (one identifying visible and infrared light and the other on thermal emissions ) revealed the presence of hydroxyls in the asteroid. Hydroxyls are molecules containing oxygen bound to hydrogen atoms, and the team suspects that hydroxyls are everywhere on the asteroid in clay minerals – which means that ## 147 ## 39 at some point the rock material interacted with the water.

However, experts believe that Bennu is too small to contain liquid water. Nevertheless, the discovery indicates that liquid water was already present at some point in the history of the asteroid, whereas it was probably much larger than what we see today. 39; hui.

"This discovery helps to better understand the important link that exists between what we think of what happened in space with asteroids such as Bennu and what we see in the meteorites that scientists study in the lab is very exciting to see these hydrated minerals spread to the surface of Bennu composition of the asteroid, not just sprayed on its surface by an impactor, "explained Ellen Howell, senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of California Amy Simon, a scientist at NASA, also said that" the presence of hydrated minerals in the 39; asteroid confirms that Bennu, a remnant since the beginning of the formation of the solar system, is an excellent specimen of the OSIRIS-REx mission to study the composition of primitive and organic volatiles. "

Another fact of the probe is that the recently obtained data confirm previous radar observations, which showed that Bennu's format was similar to that of a diamond. The data also confirms their rotational speed, inclination and overall appearance, and reveal that Bennu is a mixture of extremely rocky and rocky areas, with some relatively smooth, and that the amount of rock at its surface is greater than "Our initial data shows that the team has chosen the right asteroid as the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission.The spacecraft is in good health and the scientific instruments are working better than necessary.It is now time to start the mission. adventure, "said Dante Lauretta, senior investigator of the mission. And for Robert C. Robbins, president of the University of Arizona, "what was once science fiction is now a reality: our work at Bennu brings us closer to the possibility that asteroids provide the astronauts future resources such as fuel and water "

The OSIRIS-REx probe will perform its first orbital insertion on December 31 and will remain in orbit until mid-February 2019. In total, the mission will last seven years and will collect approximately 2 kg of materials. by means of an "arm" that will leave the probe and touch the surface of the asteroid. After that, the probe will return to Earth, which should arrive in September 2023.

Source: Eureka Alert