[Two recovery specialists transfer the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule to a cradle in the Utah desert on Sept. 24, 2023. (Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Flickr)]
Washington: The U.S. space agency NASA Wednesday October 11, 2023 said Asteroid Bennu sample contained water and carbon molecules both of which are essential for life.
“They are "exactly the kinds of material that we wanted to find," said NASA Chief Bill Nelson said Wednesday.
Nelson said water detected in the asteroid sample was in the form of hydrated clay minerals.
"The first analysis shows samples that contain abundant water in the form of hydrated clay minerals," Bill Nelson said at a press event titled 'OSIRIS-REx Sample Reveal'.
"This is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth," he said, with the carbon contained in the form of both minerals and organic molecules, according to news agency AFP.
NASA scientists are currently researching the sample of asteroid Bennu that was dropped on Earth on September 24, 2023.
Said to be the largest sample, asteroid Bennu sample was collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. It was brought to Earth after a 4 year journey.
OSIRIS-REx collected the sample from asteroid Bennu in October 2020, packed it in a capsule or canister that were then released for landing on Earth via a parachute on September 24.
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