“Potentially dangerous” asteroid Bennu is older than the dust of the solar system itself – and traces of interstellar space

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In the nearest Earth’s asteroids, Bennu is older than our solar system, as well as organic matter and interstellar space materials and ice cream, shows three fresh asteroid sample testing.

Scientists around the world have been Porling over the samples of Bennu Since the material from the asteroid was brought to the ground in 2023 Osiris-Rex the mission that flew along with asteroid Before briefly landing on it and 2020. By whipping examples.

The results give the gaze to space conditions until our solar system appeared 4.6 billion years ago and reveals more about the parent’s body that created a 1600 -foot wide (almost 500 meters) asteroid.

Violent past

The first of the three documents published on 22 August. In the magazine Nature astronomyOffers Benn’s ancestor stood out during a violent collision, after a difficult story. That older body had materials from many different environments: near the sun, far from the sun, but still inside our solar system and behind our interstellar space.

Scientists have noticed these places looking at the types of isotopes or elements in the Bennu dust sample. Isotopes arising from the solar system had a different makeup than, for example, came from an interstellar stard.

“All of these ingredients were transported over long distances to the region formed by Benn’s father asteroid,” he formed. ” Ann nguyenSocial Paper author and planetary scientist NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said a NASA’s statement;

Related: James Webb Telescope reveals that asteroids bennu and ryugu can be the same giant spaces of space rock

Scientists offer parents asteroid formed in the external solar system, probably outside Jupiter and Saturn. But then the cataclysmal event came into: “We think Jessica Barnessaid an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s University and the Planetary Laboratory, said In a statement in Arizona University;

Following the initial impact, “the fragments gathered again, and it could have repeated several times,” Barnes added. Eventually some of the surviving materials merged into Bennu.

Benn before Ryugu

The second document published on 22 August. In the magazine Geoscience of naturecompared Benn with primitive meteorites as well as asteroid Ryugu, from which Samples were taken submitted by Japanese Aviation and Space Exploration Agency Hayabusa2 mission.

Parents’ asteroids Rytis, Bennu and Meteorites probably appeared in a “similar, distant region of the early solar system,” NASA officials wrote in a space agency report. However, Benn is, in a sense, different from other selected bodies, stating that “this region has changed or mixed as well over time as some scientists thought,” they said.

Specifically, the asteroid of Bennu’s parents has changed dramatically when they come into contact with water, the second study showed.

“Bennu’s parents’ asteroid accumulated ice and dust” Tom ZegaIn a statement, NASA said a professor of planetary sciences at Arizona University and a professor of planetary sciences at Arizona University. “After all, the ice melted, and the resulting liquid reacted with dust to form what we see today: a sample that is 80% of the minerals containing water.”

“We think that parents’ asteroid from the external solar system has accumulated a lot of icy material,” Zega added, “then all she needed was a bit of heat to dissolve ice and fluid to react with solids. “

Micrometeorites

The third document published on August 22. In the magazine Geoscience of natureThere was a lot of evidence of micrometeorites struck by Benn. These small rocks left behind by microscopic craters, and “impact melting” – pieces of rock that were previously melted – on the surface of the sample. Scientists also saw traces of the solar wind – a constant flow of particles from the sun – represented in samples.

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“Surface weather conditions go much faster than the usual wisdom, and the melting mechanism of exposure seems to dominate, contrary to what we initially thought,” said the co-author Lindsay KellerNASA Johnson Space Center Planetary Scientist.

Also, while Bennu himself does not live in life, the study could help scientists learn how life came on our planet, said Michelle ThompsonThe second main author of paper and an associate professor at Purdue University, who specializes in space.

“Asteroids are relics of the early solar system. They are similar to the time capsules,” said Thompson A a statement of Purdue. “We can use them to explore the origin of our solar system and open the window into the origin of life on Earth.”