Latest news with #Bennu
CBS News
12-06-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Piece of pristine asteroid gives Field Museum scientists a look billions of years into the past
Field Museum scientist will be able to temporarily study of piece of pristine asteroid Field Museum scientist will be able to temporarily study of piece of pristine asteroid Field Museum scientist will be able to temporarily study of piece of pristine asteroid Scientists at the Field Museum can now get a glimpse of 4.5 billion years into the past. This is because the museum is the new temporary home to a tiny piece of a pristine asteroid. The little black fragment came from the near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. NASA launched a mission in 2016 to retrieve samples of the asteroid and brought them back two years ago. Now, scientists at the Field Museum will use a scanning electron microscope to get an up-close look at the tiny piece. "We believe Bennu contains part of the ingredients for life and part of the ingredients of the formation of Earth," Dr. Phillipp Heck said. Unlike a meteorite, the asteroid's fragments are pristine, meaning they are uncontaminated by the Earth's atmosphere. The sample won't be on display, but the Field Museum is home to one of the largest collections of meteorites in the world.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Space rock from asteroid Bennu arrives at Chicago Field Museum for rare study
The Brief The Field Museum received a rare, pristine sample of asteroid Bennu from NASA — a "time capsule" from the early solar system, untouched for 4.6 billion years. Scientists will study the carbon- and nitrogen-rich rock for clues about the origins of life on Earth. Bennu is considered a potentially hazardous asteroid, with a small chance of striking Earth in 2182, but researchers say it's too fragile to cause global destruction. CHICAGO - A new arrival has landed at Chicago's Field Museum — and it came from 40 million miles away. What we know The Field is one of the few research institutions in the country to receive a piece of an asteroid recently returned to Earth by NASA. "Oh, this is super exciting," said Field Museum Curator of Meteoritics Philipp Heck, as he peered at a vial containing a tiny black pebble. Museum scientists said receiving the sample is like winning the space lottery. Just days ago, they took delivery of the tiny chunk of asteroid Bennu. "It's a time capsule from the early solar system," said Heck. "That means it hasn't changed since it formed 4.6 billion years ago." In 2020, a NASA spacecraft intercepted the ancient asteroid — about a third of a mile in diameter — and punched out tiny shards of rock. That material was later returned to Earth in a sealed capsule, which preserved its scientific value. Unlike meteorites that burn through Earth's atmosphere and are contaminated with microbes, this asteroid sample is pristine. "The asteroid sample contains organic chemicals. And also it's rich in carbon and nitrogen," said Field Museum Resident Graduate Student Yuke Zheng. "So these elements and compounds, they are very essential to the beginning of life." Over the next few weeks, researchers will use advanced equipment to identify those building blocks, which may have been ingredients in the origin of life on Earth. "Bennu is essentially a piece of the pantry that contains the ingredients that went into the soup from which later the planet and life formed," explained Heck. There's another reason scientists are keeping a close watch on Bennu. It's classified as a potentially hazardous object, with a 1-in-1,750 chance of striking Earth on Sept. 24, 2182. The good news, according to Heck, is that the rock isn't very strong. "This is very fragile. It's mechanically weak rock. So I think even if that rock would collide with Earth, it wouldn't be a global killer." What's next The Field Museum will return its piece of the asteroid to NASA in August. Because of its tiny size and rarity, the sliver will not be displayed to the public.
CBS News
11-06-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Tiny fragment of asteroid giving Field Museum scientists a glimpse 4.6 billion years into the past
The Field Museum is the new temporary home to a tiny piece of pristine asteroid. The fragment of the asteroid Bennu, on loan from NASA, won't be on display for visitors, but will give scientists the chance to study an asteroid sample uncontaminated by Earth's atmosphere. A tiny, black fragment might not seem exciting, until a scientist explains it's a specimen from space. "It's an honor of a lifetime to be able to study this sample," said Field Museum curator Dr. Philipp Heck. How did Heck feel when the little rock first arrived at the museum and he held the vial containing the sample? "It was amazing. I was looking forward to that moment for a long time," he said. NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission was planned decades ago. In 2016, a spacecraft launched. In 2018, it arrived at Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid as wide as the Sears Tower is tall. The mission collected pieces of the asteroid and brought them back to Earth in 2023. "This is the first U.S. mission that sends a spacecraft to the asteroid and brings a sample back to Earth," said University of Chicago graduate student Yuke Zheng, who is part of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team. "It's a tiny, dark, black fragment that is fragile, so we want to protect it very carefully." She'll use the museum's scanning electron microscope to get an up-close look at a tiny sample of Bennu. "What struck me is how dark the sample is. I had never seen such a dark sample," Heck said. The fragment is like a time capsule, taking scientists back 4.6 billion years. "We believe Bennu contains part of the ingredients for life, and part of the ingredients of the formation of Earth," Heck said. Suddenly, a fragment at the bottom of a vial can have you pondering your place in the universe. "I've never studied a pristine sample from an asteroid," Heck said.
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
‘It blew us away': how an asteroid may have delivered the vital ingredients for life on Earth
Several billion years ago, at the dawn of the solar system, a wet, salty world circled our sun. Then it collided, catastrophically, with another object and shattered into pieces. One of these lumps became the asteroid Bennu whose minerals, recently returned to Earth by the US robot space probe OSIRIS-REx, have now been found to contain rich levels of complex chemicals that are critical for the existence of life. 'There were things in the Bennu samples that completely blew us away,' said Prof Sara Russell, cosmic mineralogist at the Natural History Museum in London, and a lead author of a major study in Nature of the Bennu minerals. 'The diversity of the molecules and minerals preserved are unlike any extraterrestrial samples studied before.' Results from this and other missions will form a central display at a Natural History Museum's exhibition, Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?, which opens on 16 May. It will be a key chance for the public to learn about recent developments in the hunt for life on other worlds, said Russell. As the exhibition will reveal, the basic chemical building blocks for life can be found in other objects in the solar system such as meteorites. However, the material from Bennu, which is named after an ancient Egyptian mythological bird, have been found to be particularly rich in these deposits. 'Its parent world clearly had underground lakes of brine, and when these evaporated they left behind salts that resemble those found in dry lake beds on Earth,' said Russell. In addition, phosphates, ammonia and more than a dozen protein-building amino acids that are present in life forms on Earth – as well as the five nucleobase building blocks that make up RNA and DNA – were found in the samples brought back by OSIRIS-REx. 'These strongly suggest that asteroids similar to Bennu crashed on to Earth, bringing crucial ingredients that led to the appearance of life here,' she added. Scientists do not believe life evolved on Bennu itself but do think other asteroids like it might have supplied other worlds with the basic ingredients for life. On Earth, with its warm, stable environment, this led to the first appearance of reproducing organisms more than 3.7 billion years ago. It remains to be seen if they appeared on other promising worlds such as Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, that include Europa, Ganymede, Titan and Enceladus. These are now the subject of a number of missions that will feature in the exhibition and include two probes now heading for Jupiter's ice-covered moons Europa and Ganymede, which are known to possess liquid water oceans. In addition, the UK-built Rosalind Franklin robot rover is scheduled to land on Mars in 2029 and will drill deep into its soil, seeking evidence of life. In the past, samples of extraterrestrial rocks made available for study have been limited mainly to meteorites, pieces of the moon brought back by astronauts and robot probes, and lumps of Mars that were blasted towards Earth when large objects struck the red planet and blew debris into space – with some eventually falling on to our world as Martian meteorites. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to touch samples of lunar and Martian material as well as a meteorite that landed on our planet after breaking off from an asteroid. Intriguingly, this rock is older than the Earth itself. 'This is going to be a blockbuster,' said Sinead Marron, the museum's senior exhibitions manager. OSIRIS-REx brought back 120gm of Bennu dust to Earth, and the museum has been given around 200mg to study, said Russell. 'When we first opened the capsule, we saw this black dust everywhere, with white particles in it. We thought it might be contaminated. But it turned out to be a compound of phosphorus we have not seen in meteorites but which is absolutely crucial to the development of life. I was astonished.' The prospects that life might exist elsewhere in the universe made headlines last week when it was announced that observations of the exoplanet K2-18b by the James Webb space telescope had revealed the chemical fingerprints of two compounds that, on Earth, are only known to be produced by life. On their own, the chemicals, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), do not amount to proof of alien biological activity but they have boosted hopes that we are not alone in the universe. Conclusively proving that life exists on distant worlds outside our solar system will be extremely hard, scientists acknowledge – short of a signal from an extraterrestrial intelligence announcing its existence. By contrast, alien lifeforms within our solar system will be easier to collect and study and may prove, one day, that life on other worlds does indeed exist. 'What we would do about such a discovery is a different matter,' Marron said. 'One of the things we will be asking exhibition visitors to think about is how we would treat life if we found it on Mars or another world. Would we stay away from it or try to interact with it? 'Or would we try to eat it, like we eat lifeforms with whom we share this planet? Such questions about alien life help us reflect on the ways we engage with other forms of life in our own world.'
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
The Town and The City Festival in Lowell, Tucson's new Astro Trail, and a watch geared to runners
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Sign up for Tucson's new (and free) Astro Trail guide and use it to explore the area's stunning night sky preserves and other astronomical attractions, including the newly reopened Kitt Peak National Observatory (pictured here). Handout Advertisement THERE Explore Tucson's new Astro Trail Visit observatories, dark sky preserves, science centers, a planetarium, and numerous other space-related sites along greater Tucson's new Astro Trail. The Tucson area, which has the headquarters for Dark Sky International (formerly the International Dark Sky Association), has been known as a stargazer's haven ever since regional officials enacted light pollution ordinances in the 1970s. Sign up for the new free Astro Trail guide and use it to explore the area's stunning night sky views and astronomical attractions. Highlights include the Pima Air and Space Museum, which is one of the largest non-government-funded aviation and space museums in the world; the newly reopened Kitt Peak National Observatory, which is home to one of the largest arrays of optical and radio telescopes in the world; the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, which recently opened its new Universe of Science exhibit, focusing on the human brain, a monsoon storm, and deep space; and Saguaro National Park, one of only two national parks to receive an Urban Night Sky Place designation. Also see a sample of the Bennu asteroid at the Gem and Mineral Museum (one of only three public places where a piece of this asteroid can be viewed), visit the newly reopened and renovated Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory Visitor and Science Center, and enjoy immersive stargazing programs and astronomy camps through the Mount Lemmon Skycenter, which offers access to two of the largest public telescopes in the southwest. Sign up for the guide online and then receive a mobile passport (through a text link) that lists all exhibits, attractions, and astronomical-related destinations, and discounts to local restaurants and sites. Advertisement Amazfit's Cheetah Pro GPS watch is made for runners. Handout EVERYWHERE A watch geared to runners Whether you're running on routes near home or exploring a new destination — for fun or training — check out Amazfit's Cheetah Pro watch, which is made for runners. The lightweight watch has exceptional GPS technology that helps track your movements when running through forests or cities with tall buildings. Download color maps and routes from the Zepp app so you can accurately navigate new runs even in offline mode. Also store your favorite route and then track your improvement on that route over time. The watch tracks heart rate, stress, sleep, and oxygen saturation so you can train better and run smarter. It also offers AI-powered coaching that provides personalized training input to help you improve over time, and adjusts your workout schedule each week based on your progress (so you don't overtrain and to help you reach your race or training goals). Create templates on the watch for interval training and use those to easily guide you through workouts. Store songs on the Cheetah Pro so you can run with music. The Cheetah Pro has an ultra-bright, easy-to-read, and durable (Gorilla Glass 3) screen, a nylon strap, and a battery that lasts up to 14 days (but requires a proprietary plug to recharge). Choose from a selection of watch face themes and opt for a daily morning update that provides the current weather, your sleep data, and the watch's battery power. Currently $159.99. Advertisement KARI BODNARCHUK Kari Bodnarchuk can be reached at
