NASA shares image of nearly 5-billion-year-old asteroid crossing the Earth
Image of 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shared a stunning image of a4.5-billion-year-old asteroid crossing the Earth.
The image ofasteroid Bennu has been taken by the Osiris Rex spacecraft which ison its way back to Earth with a sample of rocks and dust from the ancient cosmic object.
The spacecraft found traces of hydrogen and oxygen molecules - part of the recipe for water and thus the potential for life - embedded in the asteroid's rocky surface, said Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx mission's principal investigator, in 2018.
The trip back to Earth will take about two years. The spacecraft will then eject a capsule containing the asteroid samples, which NASA says will land in a remote area of Utah.
NASA says samples will be distributed to research laboratories worldwide, but 75 per centof the samples will be preserved at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for future generations to study with technologies not yet created.
The roughly $800 million, minivan-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, launched in 2016 to grab and return the first USsample of pristine asteroid materials. Japan is the only other country to have accomplished such a feat.
Asteroids are among the leftover debris from the solar system's formation some 4.5 billion years ago. A sample could hold clues to the origins of life on Earth, scientists say.
(With inputs from agencies)