{"id":210055,"date":"2025-02-03T14:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T00:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=210055"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T00:16:10","slug":"samples-of-asteroid-bennu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/03\/samples-of-asteroid-bennu\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherished samples of asteroid analyzed at 糖心视频<\/abbr> M\u0101noa lab"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Kazu Nagashima operates the ion probe in the Keck Laboratory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa recently received and analyzed pristine samples from the asteroid Bennu—material that has been preserved in the vacuum of space since the tumultuous formation of the solar system. Their findings will provide clues to the building blocks and events of those earliest days.<\/p>\n

“To date there have been only a handful of missions that brought material back to Earth from elsewhere in the solar system,” said Gary Huss, researcher at the Hawaiʻi<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology<\/a> (HIGP<\/abbr>) in the 糖心视频<\/abbr> Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a> (SOEST<\/abbr>) and director of HIGP<\/abbr>\u2019s W.M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory<\/a>. “It is an honor and a privilege to analyze a sample from another world.”<\/p>\n

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Gary Huss demonstrates how samples are loaded into the ion probe in the Keck Lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2016, NASA<\/abbr> launched OSIRIS-REx<\/a> with a mission to reach Bennu, which orbits near Earth, and collect a sample of material from its surface. In addition to gathering remote observations that revealed Bennu\u2019s rugged surface<\/a> with boulders as armor<\/a>, OSIRIS-REx unfurled its robotic arm and, in a first for NASA<\/abbr>, briefly touched down and collected dust and pebbles. Years later, in 2023, the spacecraft delivered the sample to Earth and a thin polished section of that material was shared by NASA<\/abbr> in January with researchers at HIGP<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

“Collecting and transporting these samples 200 million miles back to Earth was an engineering marvel,” said Rob Wright, HIGP<\/abbr> director. “That some of this precious material has been entrusted to HIGP<\/abbr>\u2019s labs is testament to the world-leading expertise of Gary, Kazu [Nagashima, HIGP<\/abbr> specialist], and the cosmochemistry group; and the cutting-edge science being conducted at the University of Hawaiʻi.<\/span>”<\/p>\n

Bennu is essentially a time capsule from the early solar system. Researchers from around the world applied to receive samples of the asteroid to better understand the origin of the asteroid and by extension the origin of the solar system. Huss and Nagashima, were granted access to the cherished samples to measure oxygen isotopes in various minerals including dolomite, calcite, bruennerite, and magnetite, using the ion probe in the Keck Lab.<\/p>\n

“This will give us new insight into the raw materials for the solar system and the water that was part of the asteroid,” said Huss. “Additionally, the mineral analyses will tell us about the temperature of interactions between rock and water on the asteroid, and the isotopic measurements can potentially tell us about the timing of various things that happened in the early solar system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

糖心视频<\/abbr> Mānoa researchers received and analyzed pristine samples from the asteroid Bennu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[170,1363,92,174,9],"class_list":["post-210055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-hawaii-institute-of-geophysics-and-planetology","tag-manoa-research","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-space","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t