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<\/p>\nIn its first major scientific find, NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has found water on asteroid Bennu. The discovery was made via observations during OSIRIS-REx\u2019s approach to the Near Earth Asteroid between mid-August and early-December 2018 and confirms previous thoughts that Bennu might be a place harboring water in the inner solar system.<\/p>\n
The discovery also holds significant potential in terms of the material from Bennu OSIRIS-REx hopes to return to Earth early next decade. The return of such water-bearing material could help solidify or distance scientists from a theory that asteroids seeded Earth billions of years ago with the water that now dominates our planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
An amazing start to OSIRIS-REx\u2019s primary science mission:<\/b><\/p>\n
Last week, when all eyes were on OSIRIS-REx for the spacecraft\u2019s arrival at asteroid Bennu, mission scientists were ending a multi-month long data comparison between OSIRIS-REx (Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) instruments to confirm spectral data showing the presence of water on the Near Earth Asteroid.<\/p>\n
During the 3.5 month approach phase of OSIRIS-REx to Bennu, mission scientists aimed three of the spacecraft\u2019s instruments toward the asteroid and began making the mission\u2019s first scientific observations.<\/p>\n
Of those three instruments, two of OSIRIS-REx\u2019s spectrometers, the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES), revealed the presence of molecules containing bonded oxygen and hydrogen atoms, known as hydroxyls \u2013 revealing a global distribution of water-bearing clay minerals on Bennu.<\/p>\n
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Bennu, composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by OSIRIS-REx (Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona)<\/p>\n
While the discovery of water is not a discovery of liquid water pooling on Bennu\u2019s surface, it is a discovery of water containing clay minerals. And since Bennu is too small to have ever hosted liquid water on its own, the discovery indicates that the parent body from which Bennu originated \u2013 a larger asteroid \u2013 did contain liquid water itself.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the American Geophysical Union\u2019s Fall 2018 meeting, members of the OSIRIS-REx team spoke to the fact that a major mission objective was accomplished so quickly, but iterated that there is still a great deal of work ahead for the mission \u2013 which is also tasked with retrieving a sample from the surface of Bennu and returning that sample back to Earth.<\/p>\n
NASA educational resources (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cThe presence of hydrated minerals across the asteroid confirms that Bennu, a remnant from early in the formation of the solar system, is an excellent specimen for the OSIRIS-REx mission to study the composition of primitive volatiles and organics,\u201d said Amy Simon, OVIRS deputy instrument scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen samples of this material are returned by the mission to Earth in 2023, scientists will receive a treasure trove of new information about the history and evolution of our solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting those materials back to Earth will be tricky, but it\u2019s something the team and spacecraft are well prepared for.<\/p>\n From the beginning, OSIRIS-REx was designed to not only arrive at and fly in formation with Bennu \u2013 something the craft achieved on 3 December \u2013 but also to enter orbit of the asteroid (scheduled for 31 December 2018) and then touch down on its surface sometime in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n