NASA spacecraft finds signs that highrise-sized asteroid near Earth once had water

The finding made by NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is particularly noteworthy because we are yet to figure out how water came to be on Earth.

Bengaluru: NASA has discovered signs that Bennu, a skyscraper-sized asteroid located near Earth, once held water, the space agency has announced.

It was just last week that a NASA explorer, OSIRIS-REx, came close to the asteroid as part of a mission to study it and bring back samples to Earth in 2023.

According to NASA, the spectrometer onboard the spacecraft noticed hydroxyls on the surface of the asteroid nearly a month ago, but the announcement was held back till the discovery could be confirmed.
These hydrogen-oxygen bonded atoms (OH) are locked in clay on the asteroid, indicating that, at some point in the past, the soil had made contact with water.