How Important is the first asteroid sample

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Health

Context: OSIRIS-REx brought the sample from asteroid Bennu.

More about the news:

OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer
OSIRIS-REx is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission.
The spacecraft arrived at the asteroid in December 2018 and orbited for two years, measuring the asteroid’s mass, density, albedo, surface composition and particle environment.
The landing site on Bennu was named: Nightingale.

Some fact about asteroid Bennu:

Bennu is a B-type Near-Earth Asteroid.
B-type asteroids are a relatively uncommon type of carbonaceous asteroid.
Because of its high carbon content, the asteroid reflects about four per cent of the light that hits it, which is very low whereas Earth reflects about 30 percent of the light.
There is a slight possibility that Bennu might strike the Earth in the next century, between the years 2175 and 2199.

Why this sample is important;

These samples carried by the OSIRIS-REx mission are important because asteroids such as Bennu can act as a “time capsule” for our solar system’s earliest history.
The asteroid sample will help researchers learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.
Material has been collected and returned to Earth from comets, asteroids, the solar wind and the Moon.
But samples returned directly from a source can answer many scientific questions that can’t be answered by remote observations, landers and rovers, or even meteorites fallen to Earth.
Many details hidden within a rock can be lost during a meteorite’s atmospheric entry and impact but are preserved with a returned sample.
Earlier samples returned from asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu had been analyzed, which were the targets of past missions of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The Hayabusa spacecraft collected evidence of space weathering on Itokawa, and Hayabusa2 found that Ryugu is made of carbon-rich rocks, known as carbonaceous chondrites, that closely trace the Sun’s composition. The Ryugu samples revealed that the few meteorites of the same classification that have fallen to Earth were chemically altered by the journey.

Some more facts:

OSIRIS-REx was NASA’s third sample return from a deep-space robotic mission.
The Genesis spacecraft dropped off bits of solar wind in 2004, but the samples were compromised when the parachute failed and the capsule slammed into the ground.
The Stardust spacecraft successfully delivered comet dust in 2006.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is already chasing the asteroid Apophis, and will reach it in 2029.