Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur
TEXAS — Nearly four years after NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft collected a sample from an asteroid, scientists are finally revealing the intriguing composition of the space rock.
Speaking at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas and online last week, Barnes said there are no good chemical analogues of the mineral on Earth, either because it is too fragile to survive the fall to Earth or vanishes soon after. Its presence in Bennu's sample can be used to infer different episodes of geologic activity on Bennu's parent body, she said.
In a fleet of talks at the LPSC, the mission team reported that the stones cataloged so far also sport a variety of textures, hydrated minerals and evidence for space weathering, as is expected from an airless, eons-old rock. "I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to see some samples where everything isn't altered to sulfates and all kinds of muck," said team member Tim McCoy, a curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., which received a sample of the asteroid to analyze last November."You're seeing it literally the day it fell — it is remarkable to see something that fresh.
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