'It was only 10 years ago that water was discovered on the moon, not only on the surface, but also inside minerals,' Barnes says. The instrument allows researchers to see individual atoms in extraterrestrial samples. Tom Zega at the control panel of the 12-foot tall transmission electron microscope at the Kuiper Materials Imaging and Characterization Facility at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab. Lunar samples are critical pieces in this puzzle because unlike Earth, where the oldest rocks have largely been erased by plate tectonics, the moon’s ancient rock record is still intact.'Ībout 4.6 billion years ago, when a swirling nebula of gas and dust began collapsing into a disk that would give rise to our solar system, the rocky planets and the carbonaceous chondrites were developing in different places and at different times, Barnes explains, which poses a problem for the scenario involving early asteroids as harbingers of water. 'Understanding how life on Earth began is intimately tied to the story of how water arrived here. 'To understand where water in the solar system came from, and particularly how it ended up on Earth, Mars, and in the asteroid belt, we have to consider the moon,' says Barnes, whose current research focuses on tracing water meteorites, including some of Martian origin, and moon samples collected during Apollo 11, 14, and 17. It is no coincidence that Bennu, the target asteroid of the UA-led OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, is a carbonaceous chondrite.

Previous research, including some of her own work, suggests that certain space rocks known as carbonaceous chondrites brought water with them when they impacted Earth and Mars, and potentially some of the larger asteroids. 'They realized that future technologies would allow us to do things that would have been impossible at the time, and that people would come up with new questions, and it's really exciting because we're at that point in time now.'īarnes is on a quest to find out where water came from in the early solar system and how it has evolved over time. 'When these samples were brought back, the curators had the foresight to say, 'in this moment we don't have all the methods to answer all the questions these samples could help us answer' and so they locked some away for future study,' Barnes says. Several samples from that mission were initially processed under nominal laboratory conditions, protected from air exposure by a nitrogen cabinet at room temperature, and were then placed into cold storage within one month of return. Under NASA's Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis, or ANGSA, program, Barnes will be granted access to Apollo 17 sample 71036, which contains almost four ounces of rock. Astronaut Jack Schmitt is seen on the left.

The ANGSA samples Jessica Barnes is studying, including Apollo 17 sample 71036, were chipped from this boulder. Jessica Barnes, an incoming assistant professor in the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, was recently selected by NASA to receive access to previously unopened moon rock samples. The iconic print made by his left boot marked but the first step on a long journey of discovery, a discovery about the moon and our own world – both of which hold secrets that scientists are only beginning to uncover.įifty years after the Apollo astronauts collected samples of moon rocks and dust during their forays across the lunar landscape, there are still mysteries to be solved, and one University of Arizona scientist is looking for answers. On July 20, 1969, as Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder from the 'Eagle' lunar landing module, he found himself surrounded by a sea of grey – an expanse of powdery dust no human had ever seen in person.

The UA's Jessica Barnes is among the scientists selected by NASA to be granted access to previously unopened samples, including some collected during NASA's last manned mission to the moon. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt stands next to a steep-walled crater named Shorty on Dec.

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