A NASA mission to collect samples from an asteroid older than Earth could change our understanding of the solar system.
The return capsule containing a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is seen shortly after touching down in the desert at the US Department of
Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway, Utah, on September 24, 2023 [File: NASA/Keegan Barber/Reuters]
Why did life happen on Earth? And how did it begin? Even the world’s most advanced space scientists still don’t fully understand these questions, but a mission by NASA called OSIRIS-REx hopes to fill in the missing chapters from Earth’s origin story. The spacecraft travelled billions of kilometres to look for answers on the asteroid Bennu, which researchers describe as a time capsule from the earliest days of the solar system.
In this episode:
- Colin Baker (@airlockben), Al Jazeera news editor
- Zack Gainsforth (@zgainsforth), space scientist, University of California, Berkeley
- Pierre Haenecour (@stardustpierre), cosmochemist, University of Arizona
- Ashley King (@ashleyjking85), planetary scientist, Natural History Museum
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Miranda Lin and our host Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. Shrijan Pandey, Zaina Badr and Kara Dauletkanova fact-checked this episode.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik, and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
