Considerable amounts of water were discovered in the Bennu asteroid, did the asteroids bring the water to Earth?

Prof. Omri Vandel, Hebrew University: "This is a sensational discovery that can establish a central theory in astrophysics regarding water on Earth"

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which recently began close observations of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, is already beginning to provide amazing findings. From the analysis of the data transmitted by the spacecraft, NASA personnel came to the conclusion that water is trapped in the clay on the ground of the asteroid we built.

As mentioned, the spacecraft reached orbit around Benu on December 3, that is, about ten days ago after a journey of 2.2 million kilometers. The mission team aimed three instruments on the spacecraft and began performing the scientific observations of the mission, which will eventually return a soil sample from the asteroid to Earth.

Data obtained from three spectrometers, covering different fields of light, including visible light and infrared light, reveal the presence of molecules containing oxygen and hydrogen atoms - hydroxyls. His son as a small asteroid could not carry water, and the estimate was that the liquid water was present at some stage in the body of the father of his son - a much larger asteroid.

Prof. Omri Vandel, an astrophysicist from the Rakah Institute of Physics says in an interview with the science website: "This is a sensational discovery that can establish a central theory in astrophysics regarding water on Earth. Regarding the existence of life in space, it is important to remember that water is essential for the existence of life, but its existence does not guarantee life."

"The discovery of water on the Beno asteroid is scientifically interesting because it opens another channel that may answer the riddle of how the oceans were formed. The scientists believe that the earth was created without water because at the distance where the earth is, the water cannot condense. The minimum distance from the sun where water can condense is the orbit of Jupiter. The water came later and the explanation was that the water came from comets crashing into the Earth because asteroids do not have appreciable amounts of water."

"But a problem arose when it became clear that in the vast majority of comets, the isotopic structure, meaning the ratio between hydrogen and deuterium, is not similar to that of water on Earth. So far, only one comet has been discovered where the ratio of isotopes is similar to the ratio on Earth, in any case, the frequency of comet impacts is not high, and the amounts of water could not fill the Earth's oceans."

"The existence of water in asteroids may help solve the problem of water reaching the Earth, and indirectly also in other solar systems where stars relatively similar to their sun have been discovered. In the Yeshiv area, the water cannot condense when a solar system is formed, so the assumption is that the water arrived later from Jupiter's orbit.

Asteroids are usually composed of rocks and gravel, and contain significant amounts of metals, but rarely contain water. In the solar system, Mars, which is the best candidate for finding life due to the conditions relatively similar to those of the Earth, contains large amounts of water, but it is in a frozen state at the poles and in the subsoil. Billions of years ago, they were in a liquid state.

Liquid water exists on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, but it is under a thick sheet of ice, in a large underground ocean. These two moons are a target for searching for life. There is also water on Titan, but it is at high pressures and temperatures, so there is no point in looking for life there.

What is the current theory of how the asteroids were formed?

Prof. Wendel: "One of the theories is that they originate from a planet that was created and disintegrated. In the position of the asteroids in terms of the distance ratio from the sun, it was requested that there be another planet. This is how they discovered the first asteroid Keres, which was then considered a planet, before it was discovered that it was part of a large belt of trees surrounding the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It is now considered a dwarf planet, and in its wake many asteroids much smaller than it have been discovered. A second theory is that the asteroids are remnants of a nascent planet that failed to form due to Jupiter's gravity."

His son is also a near-Earth asteroid, how can his research help in this aspect?

An asteroid hitting the Earth is an event that has occurred several times in Earth's history. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Gulf of Mexico and caused a chain of climatic changes that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, and indirectly led to the prosperity of mammals. In 1908, a much smaller asteroid hit Siberia and caused considerable destruction there.

"Most asteroids orbit the Sun in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, but there are some whose orbits intersect the Earth's orbit. Theoretically there is a chance that they will hit the Earth. For this to happen, both the Earth and the asteroid need to reach the same point."

Tracking near-Earth asteroids

"There is a program for locating and tracking near-Earth asteroids, in which the Weiss Observatory of Tel Aviv University also participates, under the leadership of Dr. Noah Brosh. It is estimated that if the asteroid threatening to collide is discovered long enough in advance it will be possible to deflect it from its orbit so that it misses the Earth. The preferred method is using a rocket engine. Build mirrors that will surround the asteroid and direct the sunlight to one point. The gases and dust at that point will evaporate and the asteroid will be deflected in the opposite direction. Any other method requires bringing a lot of equipment from Earth.

By the way, this is also the reason why asteroids are not mined yet, even though they contain minerals necessary for the human economy. According to Prof. Vandel, putting mining equipment into space will mean that the iron ingot, for example, will rise on Earth as much as its weight in diamonds, but there is no doubt that in the future they will be able to use minerals, and possibly water, for humanity's needs.

For information on the NASA website

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• A seven-year journey to retrieve sixty grams of an asteroid
• NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft reaches asteroid 'Beno'
• Will mining asteroids save the earth?
• On asteroid studies, and their contribution towards the manned journey to Mars