NASA collects traces of water on the asteroid "Pino"

NASA collects traces of water on the asteroid "Pino"

A painted and assembled image of the asteroid Pino (AB)

Washington: Middle East Online

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Osiris Rex, a NASA spacecraft, has discovered water components on a relatively rocky asteroid, much like a skyscraper, that could provide evidence of the origins of life on Earth, scientists said.
The Osiris Rex, which flew 19 kilometers from Pino, about 2.25 million kilometers from the Earth, found traces of molecules of hydrogen and oxygen, which are part of the structure of the water and, hence, the possibility of life, the surface of a rock asteroid. .
The probe was launched as part of a mission to bring asteroid samples to Earth for study in 2016.
The Pino asteroid, about 500 meters wide, revolves around the Sun at about the same distance as the Earth and the Sun.
Scientists fear that the asteroid Pino hit the Earth at the end of the 22nd century.
"We found water-rich minerals right at the start of the solar system, which is exactly like the sample we searched for and brought to Earth," said Dante Loretta, a global scientist at the University of California. Arizona and principal investigator of the Odyssey Rex mission.
Asteroids are part of the remnants of the solar system, some 4.5 billion years ago.
Scientists believe that the collision of asteroids and comets with the Earth at its very beginning could have led to organic compounds and water, giving the planet the germ of life. Atomic analysis of samples from the Pino asteroid could provide key evidence to support this hypothesis.
"When the vehicle will transport samples of these substances to Earth in 2023, scientists will have a treasure trove of new information on the history and evolution of our solar system," he said. Amy Simon, scientist at Goddard Aviation Center of NASA in Maryland.
"We really want to understand the role that these carbon-rich asteroids have played in moving water back to Earth at the beginning of its creation, making it habitable," said Loretta.
Osiris Rex will approach the Pino asteroid 1.9 km later this month to enter the asteroid's gravitational zone and analyze its topography.
From there, the craft will gradually begin to reduce its orbit around the asteroid just two meters from its surface, so that its mechanical arm can extract a sample of the asteroid by July 2020.
The vehicle then begins to return to Earth and a capsule carrying an asteroid will be launched to land in an awning in the Utah desert in September 2023.

America

NASA