Purdue scientist among first to study asteroid sample
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A professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue University was among six scientists to be the first to examine a study of samples from the asteroid Bennu retrieved through NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
Michelle Thompson said it was a “surreal moment” when the sample return canister was opened at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston after the sample landed on Sept. 24 in Utah.
Thompson’s “quick-look” team had 72 hours to analyze the sample, and said the experience had an “electric feeling.”
Thompson discussed some of the early results of the analysis, which aimed to get an initial understanding about what the asteroid Bennu was made out of.
“We know that there are hydrated minerals, meaning that minerals incorporate water into their micro structures. Now, this water is representative of what would have been around in the early solar system and could have delivered water to Earth and contributed to our own oceans,” she said. “We also know that there are organic molecules in the sample. And these molecules could be the building blocks that were delivered to Earth and eventually evolved into life.”
The sample was just a small amount collected through the OSIRIS-REx’s TAGSAM, or Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism. Thompson said the samples collected could provide scientists with a lifetime of work.
“This science team will be working on the samples for the next couple of years, but they really will represent generations of scientists that will come after us who will have access to these materials,” she said. “We are just at the tip of the iceberg in trying to understand what the composition of these materials are, what they can tell us about the early solar system and what types of things might have been delivered to early Earth.”
Thompson said her team didn’t work around the clock during the 72 hours they had to analyze the sample, but it was close. The effort was the result of years of preparation.
“This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime — maybe a once-in-several-lifetimes — experience,” Thompson said. “OSIRIS-REx was selected in 2011, the year I started my PhD, and launched in 2016, the year I got my PhD. It reached Bennu in 2018, the year I came to Purdue. And now I am going to be one of the first humans to get to study it. Bennu is a treasure trove of information; this is literally the project of my career.”
But the American researchers aren’t the only ones that will get to study the samples. Canada and Japan, who are partners on the mission, will be allocated about 25% of the material that was brought back.
Thompson said 70% of the material is being archived and available for scientists around the world to examine and for future generations of scientists.
“The curation team at NASA is doing an incredible job at keeping the sample pristine and it will be available in the coming years for analysis around the world,” she said. “I will continue working with the sample once we have access to the bulk sample which is still inside the TAGSAM. We’re going to continue with the detailed level of analyses that we’ve been planning for the last few years.”