Particles From Asteroid Older Than Solar System Unlock Secrets of Space

It's been traveling through space for billions of years, not too far from Earth. But rather than fear this asteroid, scientists say they want to get to know it better. In 2020, a NASA spacecraft landed on this carbon-rich rock, named Bennu, and collected more than 100 samples. What we've done is go through this material, kind of grain by tiny grain, and we find some grains in there that originated in the inner part of the solar system near the sun, and they must have been thrown out into the outermost part of the solar system where the asteroid formed. Bennu's particles were brought to Earth in 2023, and scientists have been studying them ever since, saying they could unlock some long-held secrets of space. What we found is that this asteroid, like a lot of other asteroids, formed right at the beginning of our solar system, four and a half billion years ago. That's at the time when the sun and the planets were forming, and so they can tell us about the environment in which they formed. Researchers say it's already given them insight into part of the solar system that they don't normally have access to. After billions of years traveling, there will surely be much more to learn from it. For Inside Edition Digital, I'm Mara Montalbano.