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Asteroid Bennu is a carbon

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rich asteroid that's made of leftovers
of the early solar system.

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So it's a junk pile that we can go to
and get a sample back and get a firsthand

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look of what was going on 4.5
billion years ago.

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We wanted an asteroid

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that was, we could get to and back from,
in the lifespan of the team.

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That's nice.

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One that that we could use, a launch
vehicle that exists and we could afford,

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and then that puts us in the area
of, of near-Earth asteroids.

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We needed one that that didn't
have an inclination that was too high.

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We're not too much
out of the plane of the Earth's orbit.

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So we get there,
and then we needed an asteroid

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that was large enough
so we could, navigate around.

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It wouldn't spin too fast.

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And we needed an asteroid
that had spectra that 

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told us

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it was organic rich.  And finally,
an asteroid that we had understandings of.

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And of those are five left, and Bennu
was the one that we understood the most.

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The first look at at Bennu.

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We were comparing,
what we saw in the laboratory versus

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what we saw on the spacecraft,
that was published last year.

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These papers, we have a pair of papers
that looked at the,

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the minerals found on the sample
in greater depth,

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as well as the organic compounds
found in the sample.

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The minerals tell us that
this was a very wet world

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that dried

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out leaving evaporates, leaving,

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salt deposits, in essence,
baking soda and table salt.

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And then the organics tell us that
this was, an ammonia rich, world

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that that must have been cold,
at its in its origins.

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And the salts tell us that

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it was sort of room temperature
at the last, stage of its origins.

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It tells us that it

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has amino acids, which are racemic,
equal left and right handedness,

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nucleobases.
All the stuff of they expect to see,

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in the formation of life scenarios,
but no life itself.

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So that's very, very interesting.

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There are lots of surprises in the sample,
one of which was it has very high

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ammonia, relative to meteorites
we've looked at, among among the highest.

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And, this is a case where,
I was concerned about contamination.

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The spacecraft uses
hydrazine model propellant thrusters,

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which shoot out a jet of of ammonia,
nitrogen, hydrogen gas.

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How do we know the ammonia
we found isn't contamination?

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Well, we had the foresight to collect
some of the same propellant

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that that was on the spacecraft
when it was being loaded in Florida before

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launch in 2016.

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We analyzed that in the laboratory for its
its isotopic signature.

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And compare that with the ammonia

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we found in the sample
and found out that they are quite distinct

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and that the the high ammonia
we see is not spacecraft contamination.

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It's actually indigenous, 
to the to the asteroid.

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And that tells us
that came from a cold environment.

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Initially, the rocks, formed
beyond the orbit of Saturn.

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We also found amino acids,
which are racemic, equal left and right,

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which was a surprise to me

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because other meteorites,
which are very water rich,

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show an excess of left
handed amino acids of some certain ones

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here, they're racemic.
They're equal left and right.

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And so that,

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I thought I had that answer figured out,
but I don't.

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So there's lots more questions
to ask, of this sample

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and of other of other samples
that we can look at.

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There's a lot of nitrogen
found in biology,

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which is abundant in the Bennu sample.

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Amino acids, nuclear bases,

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organic acids.

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We found small ones,
like, formic acid and acetic acid,

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things of that sort in the sample,
which are also common in biology,

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there are phosphates,
which are abundant in biology,

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though in, in a different format.

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We we found a brine,
or evidence of an ancient brine,

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which is alkaline, which is basic,

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salty and full of organic compounds,
which are the ingredients

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that many believe were important
for the origin of life.

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So a question that I've been asking myself
is, why didn't life form on Bennu?

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It had the phosphate,
it had the organics, it had the water.

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It was alkaline.

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It had the right salts and minerals.

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But there is absolutely no evidence of
biology in the Bennu samples.

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No evidence,

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chemically and no evidence
microscopically.

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So what went wrong?

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And Bennu did not have enough
time, did not have an atmosphere.

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Are our
hypothesis about what life needs wrong?

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Wow. There's a lot to study.

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Bennu was a pile leftover
from the early solar system.

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It's carbon rich.

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It's it has lots of ammonia.

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It has lots of organic compounds.

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It has, 
these evaporated, salts and minerals.

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It tells us that these were available
in the early solar system,

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that things like
it would have been bombarding

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the early Earth or Mars, Enceladus, 
Europa, Ceres, 

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what have you. And that
that the chemistry that happened here

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could have happened to these other,
wet, alkaline, ocean water environments.

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So perhaps, 
the ingredients for life were common.

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Life seems to be difficult.

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It formed on Earth.

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It didn't form on Bennu.

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We'll find out someday

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if it if there's evidence for it on Mars
or elsewhere on the solar system.

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But the ingredients seem to be widespread.

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Although Bennu contains racemic
amino acids that equal left and right

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handedness, as opposed to an excess
of left has been seen in some meteorites.

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So maybe, 
Bennu wasn’t as as clement an environment

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for the origin of life
based on on the amino acids

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or maybe our theories
about what needs to get life

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going were wrong,
and we have to reexamine them.

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So finally, samples

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come back to my laboratory,
last November.

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And, it's been thrilling to be able
to finally see

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this work paying a lot,
paying off for, for my lab.

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And of course, the most exciting part
for me is the legacy of the sample.

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More than three quarters of the sample
is archived.

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The Johnson Space Center in Houston,

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also at the Japanese
and soon Canadian space agencies

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so that people can request samples
if they're have ideas that we

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that we're not examining.

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And in fact, people
not yet born can use techniques,

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not yet invented, tests, answer questions
we haven't even asked.

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And so the legacy for decades to come of
the sample is the most exciting part.

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And it's been worth that 20 year journey.

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We have the luxury

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of being but being able to go to this
asteroid and get a sample.

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Yes, that's close enough.

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We have the technology,
we have the willpower to get it.

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And we can

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then perhaps extrapolate to other areas
we can't get to, at least not yet.

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And so, bring back a sample to study
in a laboratory tells us,

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what actually happened 4.5
billion years ago so that we can modify

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our experiments in the laboratory
so we can adjust where we look on,

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on other worlds, on the solar system,
so we can modify our theories and models

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of the chemistry, physics and geology
that go into life.

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And so,

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Bennu has, a complicated history
that we're just now beginning to peel back

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that, 
that there were pulses of different fluids

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moving through through Bennu
of at different times in its history.

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And that's, will be a fascinating story
to tell from

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before the solar system began, all the way
up to when the sample landed on Earth.

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That's the archive Bennu has for us.

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One of the first

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discoveries we made was that we,
in fact, went to the right asteroid.

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It was everything we hoped and more.

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It was, organic, rich.

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It was carbon rich.

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It was very primitive.

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But it wasn't like anything else we had
in our collection.

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It is somewhat like Ryugu,
but definitely different.

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There's some, like, some meteorites
we have, but definitely different.

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It is so fragile
that if it landed on Earth,

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we wouldn't be able to to collect it.

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It would fall apart.

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The the the minerals, would be ruined

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by humidity and certainly by rain.

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So this sample would not be achievable
without going there.

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And, this unique object

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gives us a whole new perspective
on the whole of the solar system.

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That was only possible
because of OSIRIS-REx.