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After a two-year trip, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft reached the Pino asteroid, where water components were found on the relatively short and rocky asteroid in size from a skyscraper, testifying to the origins of life on Earth.
The spacecraft recently sent data indicating that the surface of the asteroid contains minerals resembling clay, suggesting that some parts of these space rocks had liquid water at a time or a time. other.
"Pino seems to be an important target for water," said Dante Loretta, principal investigator of the Osiris-Rex mission, at a press conference. "The water is the most interesting and probably the most cost effective material of the asteroid."
OSASIS-REx has found traces of hydrogen and oxygen molecules – a part of the water structure and therefore the possibility of life – a part of the surface of one's body. rock asteroid.
It should be noted that while Pino may be rich in water, this does not mean that there is liquid water on its surface: the diameter of the asteroid is d & # 39; 39, a little over 1,600 feet and is so small that its surface is unable to withstand liquid water.
The team gathered its data during the OSIRIS-REX launch phase between mid-August and 3 December, and their findings confirmed that the real asteroid was in agreement with the other models discovered in 2013. L asteroid should approach Pino at 1.9 km. Later this month, to enter the gravitational zone of the asteroid and badyze its terrain, the craft will gradually reduce its orbit around the asteroid to only two meters from its surface, this which will allow his robotic arm to extract a sample of the asteroid by July 2020.
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