MicrOmega is ready to analyze Bennu samples

Since December 2020, the near-infrared hyperspectral microscope MicrOmega, developed by IAS, took part in the analyzes of the samples returned from the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission. Thanks to transfer and installation tests campaigns, with IAS participation, this high-performance instrument is now ready to analyze samples from the Bennu asteroid, brought back by OSIRIS-REx.

MicrOmega is directly installed in the samples’ curation facility at ISAS (Sagamihara, Japan) where they are stored in a controlled atmosphere. When analyzed by MicrOmega, in a completely non-destructive way, the samples have never seen the terrestrial environment since their collection on Ryugu. Such specificity is critical as these samples can very quickly be altered. The results produced by the MicrOmega investigation have already led to several publications in Nature Astronomy.

Thanks to an agreement between JAXA and NASA, a fraction (0.5%) of the samples collected from the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu and brought back to Earth by the NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission in September 2023, will be transferred this summer to ISAS where a dedicated curation facility has been developed. The samples will be characterized by a suite of instruments similar to that used for the analysis of the Ryugu samples, including MicrOmega, paving the way for a comparison with the same techniques and under identical conditions of the Ryugu and Bennu samples. The results will be critical for evaluating the diversity of these objects and for determining the genericity or specificity of the identified processes.

The transfer and installation tests of MicrOmega in the new curation facility were successfully performed thanks to two dedicated campaigns at ISAS in the presence of members of the MicrOmega team from IAS: a first in November 2023, then a second in April 2024. The installation is now ready for the analysis of Bennu samples which should begin at the end of the summer.

Older news on the analysis of Ryugu samples by MicrOmega:

• Ryugu's samples reveal their secrets
• Analyses of Asteroid Ryugu samples by MicrOmega shed light on the early evolution of the Solar System
• Some samples from Ryugu are protected from the solar wind... but not all of them!

Contact at IAS : Cédric Pilorget, Vincent Hamm

View of the curation facility developed for the Bennu samples at ISAS (Sagamihara, Japan).

Installation of the MicrOmega instrument in the Bennu samples’ curation facility at ISAS (Sagamihara, Japan).