Thomas Kruijer

Bennu, it's a very primitive asteroid.

Thomas Cryer is a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore.

And that means that it is not being changed or modified much over geological history.

So over the billions of years since it formed.

And that means that we get a very clear and true perspective of how the solar system looked like billions of years ago, even before the Earth was around.

So what exists inside a preserved primitive asteroid born in the outer solar system?

I find this really incredible to have extraterrestrial samples.

You can hold them in your hand.

It's a competitive process to become a participating scientist that allows you to receive a sample of Bennu and be part of the science team that does this work.

NASA wants you to prove to them you're eligible and are capable of doing the sophisticated analysis that you promised to do.

In order to do this type of work, you need to be a leading expert in your field.

you need to be able to do these very sophisticated isotopic measurements.

And we are world experts here at the lab in analyzing very small samples with very advanced analytical tools.

And that specifically is related to the ability to measure isotopes in these rocks using mass spectrometers.

And these isotopes then in turn tell you about where the material formed, how it formed, and when it formed.

This is done under very clean conditions in a clean lab that is filled with air, HEPA filters.

And the reason for that is that we need to prevent any contamination from the Earth from being added to that sample.

So we want to keep our environmental background levels very low.

We use a technique known as mass spectrometry.

You extract information that has been retained within that sample for billions of years.