In a sterile glovebox at NASA headquarters, scientists opened a capsule containing soil samples from asteroid Bennu obtained by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft about three years ago. The capsule landed last Sunday and was delivered to NASA headquarters with a special flight. Johnson is in Houston.

“You can see black material there that looks like dust. We hope it’s a Bennu issue.” the researchers said as soon as they lifted the lid of the capsule.

Today, “dust” samples taken from the inner surface of the capsule will be sent to one of NASA’s laboratories for analysis. It is expected that it will be possible to find out for sure this Friday whether this “dust” was collected from an asteroid or something else. But the real treasure lies in the TAGSAM sampler, which has not yet been decapsulated. Experts estimate that this process will take about two weeks.

The sample capsule was opened. A black powder that may be Bennu dust is seen on the inner surface

The OSIRIS-REx station collected samples from Bennu as soon as the sampler touched down on the asteroid’s surface. The impact of the touch should have raised surface samples in the form of dust and debris, which would have been drawn into the sampler. And so it was, but the sampler had to be pre-drawn into the apparatus because one of the parts jammed the door of the chamber, which threatened the loss of the collected samples.

But there is a positive point in this. The volume of captured soil thus obtained can exceed four times the 250 grams of rock included in the return program. Below is a photo taken from the station during soil collection.

Approximately 70% of the samples taken from asteroid Bennu will be reserved for future research on equipment that has not yet been designed and built. The remaining 30 percent will be distributed to a number of global laboratories, allowing us to quickly gain insight into the asteroid material and chemical composition.

This study will be a kind of independent confirmation of the analysis of material from another asteroid, Ryugu, samples of which were brought to Earth by a Japanese apparatus. Organic matter and vitamins were found in Ryug’s materials. If scientists find the same thing in the matter on Bennu, this will significantly strengthen the theory about the cosmic sources of the origin of life on Earth.