Pakistani Ahmed Larik Among Top 100 Visionary Leaders in Saudi Arabia

In a remarkable development, Pakistani visionary leader Ahmed Larik has been recognized as one of the top 100 leaders in Saudi Arabia. This achievement highlights his dedication and contributions to the country's progress.

Recently, as NASA scientists meticulously examined the sample obtained from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, they uncovered an intriguing discovery that could provide valuable insights into the asteroid's composition. This revelation comes as a welcome surprise in the ongoing study of Bennu.

NASA's ambitious OSIRIS-REx mission, spanning seven years, successfully returned to Earth on September 24th, carrying the precious asteroid sample collected from Bennu. The mission covered a staggering distance of approximately 3.86 billion miles, marking a significant milestone in space exploration.

The sample, securely housed in a canister described by NASA as a "scientific treasure box," was transported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, a dedicated clean room facility was established to ensure the pristine condition of the cosmic sample for further analysis.

Asteroids, remnants of the early solar system, offer invaluable insights into the processes of planetary formation. Simultaneously, they present potential threats to Earth, underscoring the importance of understanding their composition and trajectories—a key element in deflecting any space objects on collision courses with our planet, as reported by CNN.

In October 2020, OSIRIS-REx employed its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head to collect a sample from the surface of Bennu. This endeavor proved so successful that particles drifted into space before being safely stored in the canister. The abundance of material collected surpassed expectations, necessitating more time for the collection process.

Christopher Snead, deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead, expressed, "The very best 'problem' to have is that there is so much material, it's taking longer than we expected to collect it. There's a lot of abundant material outside the TAGSAM head that's interesting in its own right. It's really spectacular to have all that material there."

Excitingly, NASA plans to unveil the asteroid sample's findings during a live broadcast on October 11. The TAGSAM head will be carefully disassembled in a specialized glovebox to reveal initial insights gleaned from the Bennu material.

Lindsay Keller, a member of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team, explained, "We have all the microanalytical techniques that we can throw at this to really, really tear it apart, almost down to the atomic scale." Moreover, the team intends to employ scanning electron microscopes, X-rays, and infrared instruments to comprehensively study the material's chemical composition, identifying hydrated minerals and organic particles.

Additionally, these instruments will provide crucial data on the asteroid's mineral abundance, paving the way for a better understanding of the bulk sample collected from Bennu.

Scientists believe that asteroids like Bennu may have played a vital role in delivering essential elements, such as water, to Earth during its early formation, potentially unlocking secrets about the origins of our solar system.