Recently a NASA probe returned from space, after setting down on and collecting samples from near-Earth asteroid Bennu. It was the first time the space agency had conducted such a mission and now they have finally unveiled what exactly was inside the cosmic traveler.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Recently, a NASA probe returned from space after setting down on and collecting samples
00:08from near-Earth asteroid Bennu.
00:10It was the first time the space agency had conducted such a mission, and now they have
00:13finally unveiled what exactly was inside the cosmic traveler.
00:17Here's NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to explain.
00:20The carbon and water molecules are exactly the kinds of material that we wanted to find.
00:28They are crucial elements in the formation of our own planet, and they're going to help
00:34us determine the origin of elements that could have led to life.
00:39The probe returned to Earth after having traveled some 4 billion miles across our solar system
00:43during its mission, during which it landed on Bennu, drilled in, and collected samples.
00:48Nelson added that it's also the largest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth, with
00:52a whopping 4.7% of the material being carbon-based.
00:56This is important because carbon is the basis for life as we know it, and a space rock just
01:00like Bennu could have been responsible for life beginning on our planet.
01:04And they seem to have hit the jackpot, with one of the astrobiologists who was conducting
01:08experiments on the returned material, Dr. Daniel Glavin, saying, quote, we picked the
01:12right asteroid, and we brought back the right samples.
01:15This stuff is an astrobiologist's dream.