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‘It’s amazing’: scientists analyse 4.6bn-year-old dark dust from Bennu asteroid (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A teaspoon’s worth of dark dust and granules scooped from an asteroid 200m miles from Earth has arrived at the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are preparing to unlock its secrets.

Researchers at the museum received 100mg of the pristine material, which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system, after Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission stopped at asteroid Bennu in 2020 and returned samples to Earth in September.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system

...unlike all the other dust, which popped into existence three days ago.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From a geologic standpoint, yes the rocks in Hawaii are brand new.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, yeah, to some degree this was a shit take of "ackshually everything in the universe has existed in some form, at least since the Big Bang, quite possibly longer".

But to some degree, it also just felt like a weak explanation for the excitement, because even on Earth, you can drill into some rocks and find material which has been left untouched for a similar timespan.

While Earth also formed 4.6bn years ago, its crust did not cool out right away, so it would be valid, if they're specifically excited about this (comparatively) tiny timeframe.
But reading the actual article, it rather sounds like the more obvious excitement is, that it is simply dust from an asteroid and it hasn't been mostly burnt up from the usual way of asteroids entering Earth's atmosphere.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Fair point, I think the fact that this is wholly extraterrestrial is cooler than the age