The OSIRIS-REx capsule carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu lands in Utah on Sept. 24, 2023. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The OSIRIS-REx mission is NASA’s first mission to collect samples from an asteroid—in this case 101955 Bennu—and return to Earth.
OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security—Regolith Explorer. The sealed capsule landed on Sept. 24 near Salt Lake City, Utah, a feat that was broadcast live by NASA.
My research investigates geologic samples in craters formed by meteorite collisions on Earth. These samples include materials that can be found on other planetary bodies like the moon, Mars and asteroids.
Asteroid samples
Planning for the OSIRIS-REx missiondates back to the 2010s, but the vision of a mission to bring back samples of an asteroid goes back even further.
In 1986, comet Halley’s close approach to Earth sparked an interest in the global scientific community to explore planetary objects like comets and asteroids. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which also performed fly-bys of two asteroids on the journey, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa 1 and Hayabusa 2 missions to near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are some of the important milestones that laid the foundation for exploratory missions to comets and asteroids.
Asteroid Bennu was chosen by NASA for the OSIRIS-REx mission after rigorous discussions that considered the scientific and engineering capabilities of the mission. Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) that has been studied extensively by Earth-based telescopic observations in the last two decades, making it a strategic target for an exploratory mission.
[embedded content]NASA’s live feed of OSIRIS-REx landing on Sept. 24.
Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid—a class of asteroids that contain a high amount of carbon. It is also pristine, meaning that its material was created in the early stages of solar system formation and is preserved in an unaltered condition.
Mission significance
The question of how life came to be on Earth has fascinated people for a long time. Understanding the origin and history of the Earth can shed light on how life on Earth began.
Earth has a very dynamic environment, from a thick atmosphere to a very active biosphere and a vast expanse of water oceans. Most material on Earth that was present when the Earth first formed has been significantly modified by dynamic processes like weathering and erosion by elements like water or wind, active plate tectonics, active volcanism, as well as human activities such as mining or excavation.
Asteroids, on the other hand, have very little to no modification since their formation, going back to the time of the formation of our solar system.
Pieces of asteroids, and other planetary bodies such as the moon or Mars, land on the Earth’s surface, in the form of meteorites, almost every year. These meteorites are invaluable to our knowledge of the solar system, but most of these samples originate from unknown sources.
Known sources
A planned robotic mission to bring a sample from an asteroid ensures that the source of the material is known and can help correlate the information gained from previous studies of unknown samples, as well as remote observations of the asteroid to direct observations from collected samples.
[embedded content]Watch NASA scientists reveal the asteroid sample for the first time.
Specifically, as asteroid Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid, analyses of its samples can lead to a higher knowledge of pristine carbon in our solar system and improve our understanding of the role that asteroids may have played in the origin of life on Earth.
The OSIRIS-REx mission continues to explore space. The spacecraft has been rebranded as OSIRIS-APEX, and is currently on its way to the asteroid Apophis on a nearly six-year long journey to conduct a fly-by of the asteroid.
Innovations required for the exploration of space and planetary bodies have historically been shown to benefit life on Earth.
For example, satellite technology, a concept that we depend so heavily upon in our daily lives—from navigation systems as well as national security or monitoring of natural landforms and ecosystems—is a product of space exploration.
As we attempt to venture deeper into the outer space, we can expect to see more creative technological advancements that will eventually help solve problems on Earth.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
