4.6 billion years ago, something quite magnificent was occurring in space.

What had once been a large cloud of dust and gas had grown so mighty that it collapsed under its own weight, with the result of that collapse being our solar system.

While our Sun and planets are fundamental parts of the solar system, it’s fascinating to know that asteroids are also a product of this early space dust, with both small and large asteroids forming, dependent on where in the solar system they were created.

So while asteroids are thought of by most people only when there is a possibility of one hitting Earth, they are fascinating to scientists for a whole different reason: they contain remnants of the building blocks of our entire solar system, and life itself.

With this in mind, a research team from the Natural History Museum in London sought to further understand an asteroid called Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, with a 0.06% chance of striking our planet – and were in for quite a surprise when they did.

Using samples obtained by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, the researchers analyzed the content, as well as the structure of the rock. But what they found there – as detailed in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience – proved that Bennu originated in a remote part of the solar system.

That’s because the sample contained less of the common materials from the early solar system than the researchers first expected, as Dr Ashley King explained in a statement:

“Chondrules are grains of silica-based materials, while refractory inclusions often contain elements like calcium and aluminium,” Ashley explains. “The inclusions were the first solid materials to form in the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, with chondrules following a few million years later.

As Bennu only contains these materials in very small amounts, it tells us it must have come from an area of the solar system where they weren’t common. We think that Bennu’s parent body may have come from a part of the solar system from which we don’t get many meteorites.”

Thanks to this research, Bennu has been able to tell its story, providing researchers with a deeper understanding of far-flung parts of our solar system, in the long past. And the researchers have uncovered the striking fact that Bennu experienced quite pleasant temperatures despite the coldness of space, as Dr King continued:

“While we often think of space as very cold, these reactions were happening at a temperature of around 25ºC. Collisions, radioactive elements and the pressure of Bennu’s forming parent body could all have helped to raise the temperature inside the asteroid.”

Moreover, like other bodies from the beginning of the solar system, Bennu appears, at some point at least, to have contained water too:

“In the Bennu samples, we see that the fluid isn’t staying static over time, but continuously changing as it spreads through the asteroid and reacts with its minerals. While there’s more research to be done to confirm this, the presence of veins in the rock adds further evidence that the fluids would have been moving around.”

While this tells scientists more vital information about what lies beyond our planet, for the rest of us it is a reminder that space is always ready to surprise us.

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