NASA Displays Sample from Asteroid Bennu at Smithsonian; Offers Insight on Origins of Universe

Smithsonian's Exhibit Features 0.3-Inch Piece of 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Asteroid; Sample Sheds Light on Solar System's Origins with Evidence of Water and Carbon

• NASA's mission OSIRIS-REx returned a carbon-rich sample from asteroid Bennu, which has been put on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The sample, only 0.3 inches across, reveals the presence of water, carbon minerals and organic compounds.
• The sample was collected in 2020 after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft traveled 1.4-billion-miles to Bennu and back. The mission of OSIRIS-REx, whose long form is Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, was the first US mission to collect samples from an asteroid.
• The Bennu asteroid is estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old, providing scientists with insights into the early years of our solar system. The collected sample has been stored in a nitrogen environment to prevent contamination.
• Scientists believe that similar asteroids with water-containing minerals may have bombarded Earth billions of years ago, providing the water that eventually formed our planet's oceans. This theory, backed up by the presence of water and carbon in the Bennu sample, supports the theory that life on Earth could have been seeded from space.
• Other Bennu samples will also go on display at Texas’ Space Center Houston and the University of Arizona. The public display of these samples will offer more people the opportunity to learn about the origins of our universe.

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