Asteroid Bennu has a strange chemical composition and unusual magnetic properties, a study has found. Near-Earth asteroid Bennu continues to puzzle scientists. A new study of space rock samples has shown that it has stranger properties than expected. For example, the asteroid has extremely high levels of nitrogen and incredible magnetic properties, writes New Scientist. Scientists have been analyzing samples of asteroid Bennu since they were returned to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2023. The asteroid has previously been found to contain chemical building blocks needed for life, including phosphorus-rich particles and nitrogen-containing carbon compounds. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, took a closer look at some of these particles using an electron microscope and found incredibly large amounts of nitrogen, including a compound containing carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. The scientists were also surprised by the structures that some of these carbon compounds formed. Many asteroids contain tiny hollow blobs of carbon, or nanoglobules, that can contain other important molecules. But on Bennu, these nanoglobules appear to have stuck together to form huge structures hundreds of times larger, called macromolecules. Scientists have been analyzing samples from asteroid Bennu since they were returned to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2023. Credit: NASA When scientists analyzed these macromolecules, they found chemical clues that they formed in an extremely cold environment around the same time the Sun formed, 4.5 billion years ago or even earlier, and that they had remained stuck together ever since. These macromolecules could act as a protective bubble around the elements essential to life, shielding them from the harsh conditions of space. It is possible that other asteroids have similar protection, allowing them to deliver the components necessary for life to Earth. But the explanation for how exactly so many nanoglobules stuck together in the first place still remains a mystery. The oddities of the asteroid Bennu do not end there. Scientists analyzed how strongly the samples of the space rock react to the magnetic field. It turned out that the samples have incredible magnetic properties, because they are very magnetized, which scientists did not expect. Scientists are trying to figure out how the asteroid Bennu acquired its magnetic properties, but so far they don’t have a single working theory. The post Asteroid Bennu Even Weirder Than Thought appeared first on Anomalien.com.