{"id":637932,"date":"2025-01-30T16:35:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T21:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=637932"},"modified":"2025-02-05T16:12:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T21:12:06","slug":"nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochester\u2019s Kevin Righter kept NASA space rocks free from contamination"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Precise curation was necessary to discover that the Bennu asteroid sample contains building blocks of life on Earth.<\/h2>\n<p>Long before a NASA spacecraft carrying rocks it extracted from the surface of an asteroid millions of miles from Earth touched down in the Utah desert in September 2023, a team of scientists set about figuring out how to keep the rocks pristine for studying.<\/p>\n<p>Central to that team was <a href=\"http:\/\/sas.rochester.edu\/ees\/people\/faculty\/righter-kevin\/index.html\">Kevin Righter<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/\">University of Rochester<\/a> earth and environmental sciences professor who was the curation lead for the NASA mission known as OSIRIS-REx.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d Righter says of his role in the mission, which included helping to design a clean room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, for the space rocks to be analyzed and identifying materials that could potentially contaminate them.<\/p>\n<p>OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resources Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer, has been a major win for NASA, and the space rocks it collected from Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid hurtling through the solar system at 63,000 miles per hour, have been called a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/nasas-bennu-asteroid-sample-contains-carbon-water\/\">\u201cprecious gift from the cosmos\u201d<\/a> by NASA Johnson director Vanessa Wyche.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_638202\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-638202\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-638202 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-asteroid-bennu-space-rocks-jsc2024e023025large.jpg\" alt=\"Metal container holding black rocks and dust of various sizing.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-asteroid-bennu-space-rocks-jsc2024e023025large.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-asteroid-bennu-space-rocks-jsc2024e023025large-630x473.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-asteroid-bennu-space-rocks-jsc2024e023025large-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-638202\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>ROCK ON:<\/strong> A top-down view of one of the containers holding space rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu. (<a href=\"https:\/\/images.nasa.gov\/details\/jsc2024e023025\">NASA<\/a> \/ Erika Blumenfeld and Joseph Aebersold)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The analysis of the Bennu rocks, some results of which were recently published in the journals <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-024-08495-6\"><em>Nature<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41550-024-02472-9\"><em>Nature Astronomy<\/em><\/a>, revealed they contain chemical building blocks of life on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The findings support theories that asteroids like Bennu were among the deliverers of water and organic compounds to our planet. Scientists found minerals in the rocks, specifically salts, and the chemical components of proteins and nucleic acids found in DNA and RNA, some with characteristics that have not been found in meteorites that fall to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Philipp Heck, the senior director of research at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and a member of the team at NASA that analyzed the Bennu sample, said the curation effort was vital to mission\u2019s success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe exciting discoveries made from the Bennu sample so far really highlight how essential it is to have such a carefully designed and executed curation process,\u201d Heck says. \u201cIt would not be possible otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keeping space rocks pure is no simple task. Materials from outer space (meteorites) that pierce Earth\u2019s atmosphere get oxidized, hydrated, and heated to temperatures that can transform their organic compounds and some minerals.<\/p>\n<p>Even air-tight canisters designed to hold precious space rocks, like the one on the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/osiris-rex\/\">OSIRIS-REx spacecraft<\/a>, contain metals, alloys, and epoxies that could off-gas or have some volatility that could harm the sample.<\/p>\n<p>The concerns do not stop there. Once the sample is safely delivered to Earth, where can it be studied without the threat of becoming tainted by earthly elements?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_638262\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-638262\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-638262\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid.jpg\" alt=\"Two NASA researchers in bunny suits use a special hermetically sealed case to sift through space rocks recovered from asteroid Bennu. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-1680x1120.jpg 1680w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-1250x833.jpg 1250w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-nasa-jsc2023e058643orig-space-rocks-bennu-asteroid-660x440.jpg 660w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-638262\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>SIFT AND LIFT:<\/strong> Astromaterials processors at NASA use tools to collect Bennu asteroid particles from the base of the OSIRIS-REx science canister. (<a href=\"https:\/\/images.nasa.gov\/details\/jsc2023e058643\">NASA<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Key to the curation process was the use of so-called \u201cwitness plates\u201d\u2014flat plates made of aluminum and sapphire\u2014that were exposed to all the same conditions as the sample from Bennu, creating a detailed record of potential contaminants.<\/p>\n<p>If a compound found in the Bennu sample wasn\u2019t on the witness plate, scientists could confidently identify it as originating from Bennu. This is critical when dealing with organic compounds, where contamination can make it hard to distinguish what is truly extraterrestrial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe clues we\u2019re looking for are so minuscule and so easily destroyed or altered from exposure to Earth\u2019s environment,\u201d says Danny Glavin, a senior sample scientist at NASA who was the co-lead author of the Nature Astronomy paper. \u201cThat\u2019s why some of these new discoveries would not be possible without a sample-return mission, meticulous contamination-control measures, and careful curation and storage of this precious material from Bennu.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Righter, who was with NASA from 2002 until 2024, when he joined Rochester, was tapped for the curation role in the mission in 2011 based on his experience as curator of NASA\u2019s collection of Antarctic meteorites. Hundreds of meteorites hit Antarctica annually.<\/p>\n<p>That collection is much larger than the specimen of rocks extracted from Bennu, which weighed about 120 grams, or roughly 4 ounces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt sounds like not much, but it\u2019s maybe the second largest amount of material the US has returned (since the Apollo moon missions) from another body,\u201d Righter says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of sample. To us, a 120 grams was, like, yes!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was the lead author of <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/maps.13973\">a paper published in <em>Meteoritics &amp; Planetary Science<\/em><\/a> in April 2023 that detailed the work of his team in preparing for the sample, including building upon lessons learned from previous so-called \u201csample-return\u201d missions, such as Apollo.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_638242\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-638242\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-638242 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-kevin-righter-NASA.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Righter in a NASA-branded blue shirt with clean room for curating space rocks with equipment behind him.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-kevin-righter-NASA.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-kevin-righter-NASA-630x450.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-kevin-righter-NASA-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-kevin-righter-NASA-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/inline-kevin-righter-NASA-1920x1371.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-638242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>FIRST-RATE CURATOR:<\/strong>\u00a0Kevin Righter at the OSIRIS-REx Lab, where he led the curation efforts until March 2023. (<a href=\"https:\/\/images.nasa.gov\/details\/jsc2023e052608\">NASA JSC<\/a> \/ James Blair)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Righter led OSIRIS-REx curation efforts until March 2023, when NASA hired a full-time curator for the mission, and he joined the University of Rochester in July 2024.<\/p>\n<p>But signs of work on the mission are close by. Frames on the wall of his office in Hutchison Hall showcase posters and images of the journey to Bennu and back. He says he was drawn to Rochester by the prospect of teaching and devoting more time to research. His future laboratory is currently being built next to his office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to teach, to be part of academia,\u201d Righter says. \u201cThat part of my life when I was in schooling was so rewarding and shaped my life in such a major way that I thought for many years it would be great to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I\u2019m more engaged with research again,\u201d he says, \u201cand ready to take off in several different directions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Precise curation was necessary to discover that the Bennu asteroid sample contains building blocks of life on Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1262,"featured_media":638462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[18852,18572,16072],"class_list":["post-637932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-department-of-earth-and-environmental-sciences","tag-research-finding","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rochester\u2019s Kevin Righter kept NASA space rocks free from contamination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Precise curation of the space rocks was necessary to discover that the Bennu asteroid sample contains building blocks of life on Earth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rochester\u2019s Kevin Righter kept NASA space rocks free from contamination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Precise curation of the space rocks was necessary to discover that the Bennu asteroid sample contains building blocks of life on Earth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-30T21:35:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-05T21:12:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/fea-Kevin-Righter-1200x630.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Andreatta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Andreatta\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Andreatta\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f7956fe3f44fc17441f65461de225d47\"},\"headline\":\"Rochester\u2019s Kevin Righter kept NASA space rocks free from contamination\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-30T21:35:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-05T21:12:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":991,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/nasa-bennu-asteroid-space-rocks-dust-curation-637932\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/fea-Kevin-Righter.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences\",\"research finding\",\"School of Arts and Sciences\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science &amp; 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