TUCSON, Ariz. — A little part of the cosmos is getting a new home right here in Arizona.
Last year, the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission scraped the stars (or at least something close by) and collected samples from the near-Earth asteroid, Bennu. It returned from its mission in September to deliver this first-in-the-U.S. sample.
Now, people will have a chance to see it in person. UArizona's Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum will unveil part sample to the public on Wednesday, March 6, the university announced.
It may seem tiny — the sample at the museum is only 200 milligrams — but this little bit of asteroid material is rich with information. Researchers have already found plentiful amounts of water in its composition, as well as carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous.
More parts of the sample are still being analyzed at the university, but the part that NASA allocated to the museum will go on display next to a moon rock that the Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth.
The museum is one of the only three locations that have been given part of Bennu to display. The Houston Space Center in Texas and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. are the only other places on the planet you can see these pieces of an asteroid.
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