Transcripts For CSPAN Smithsonian 20240705

Research on another asteroid. Good morning, everyone and thank you for being here. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where we are so excited to be able to share a sample of asteroid bennu. Im happy to welcome our friends from nasa, especially my dear friend and colleague, former astronaut and senator, administrator now. You may wonder why the museum of Natural History is displaying the asteroid but it makes perfect sense for the museum focused on planet earth to present this sample to the american people. The sample represents not only an amazing feat of technological achievement by nasa and all of its partners, it also offers a window into our past. Scientists, some of whom you will hear from you in a moment, will study these samples and with them answer fundamental questions about our own planet, questions like how did water come to this planet . How did the continence form . How did life itself evolve here . It takes samples back here on earth where we can put our instruments to work to get the answers to these deep questions. A few weeks ago when we got our first samples back, i got to lean over the shoulder of scientists as they studied the composition of tiny grains from bennu. Watching this in real time was thrilling. We can bring that excitement to everyone through this exhibit. This exhibit is just one example of a long, deep and Fruitful Partnership with nasa. Back from the apollo days, we have closely worked with nasa to bring the thrill of exploration, innovation, and science to the public. We both share the same missions, the increase and diffusion of knowledge. And today nasa has enabled us to have the public share in this amazing example of innovation, explanation, discovering insights. Discovery and science. This bennu sample will help nasa and the smithsonian inspired the next generations of scientists. F scientists. And now the inspiring leader of nasa, administrator bill nelson. And now the inspiring leader of nasa, administrator bill nelson. X you all may not know that ellen is the former chief scientist of nasa, and has subsequently worked up to this august position. You may also may not know that there is an incredible syncopation between the Natural History museum and nasa. Because what is of this museum about . Its about the history of the earth. Well, that is one of the Scientific Research objectives that we have to all of our satellites that are no examining everything thats happening, the new Great Observatories ever going to put up that when combined with the 25 satellites up there now will give us a 3d composite of exactly what is happening to the earth and its atmosphere, its a land, its water, and its ice. S a land, its water, and its ice. And so its quite natural then that the Natural History museum would partner with nasa on the big hyper wall where we are now bringing data realtime what is happening to the earth as a result of the measurements that are coming from our satellites. Its also quite natural that this museum would want a sample from the cosmos. Now, asteroids are something that we are very interested in. You know about a year ago we went out and crashed the spacecraft into an asteroid to see if we could move it. And that 14,000 miles an hour it hit the bullseye, and then with our telescopes we saw that we did move it in case we had a killer asteroid coming. We now know we could hit it and move its trajectory. But we also want to know whats being these asteroids. Because they fly through the solar system, and i suspect fly through other Solar Systems far out there in the universe where they are where there may very well be other Solar Systems just like ours. So why asteroids . As ellen said, this asteroid now we know has water crystals and carbon. Caller , two of tt ultimately cause like. So as of these things are whizzing through space and enough for an half, 5 billion years of evolution of this solar system, of the 13. 8 billion years of evolution of the universe and its billions of galaxies each having billions of stars, these things run into each other. That gas clouds form and they form and they spit out stars, and then all of this is colliding with each other and exploding. And ultimately, we had a remnant of that that is giving us a clue to the development of our own solar system and indeed the development of wipers and why was it of why earth and why was it life developed here. It is all part of our quest to understand, to try to understand who we are, what we are, where we are in the vastness of this cosmos. Who do i turn it over to . Okay. Thank you. The sample we are going to unfiltered is that the only sample in our building. We have are the grains rum bennu that will serve as a foundation for the museums, our unique Planet Initiative you i know please the curator of meteorites, tim mccoy who is a member of the. Translator along with our colleague carry was also here. Tim will discuss what we hope to learn from bennu. Good morning. I am beyond excited to welcome you to National Museum of Natural History. For a moment that i started dreaming of 20 years ago the idea that we would collect a sample of an asteroid kind a sample of an asteroid returned by spacecraft would join us here in the gallery of meteorites that you are standing in. But what we doing today is really just a milestone. Its a start in where we wee going. And where were going to try and use sample to really understand our unique planet. Our planet has features of havent found any other plan plant in the solar system, or outside the solar system. We have continents. We have oceans. We have life. The meteorite, the asteroid example we see today is the starting point cut its the Building Block of all that. Administer nelson said that brought water to our planned cut it brought carbon toward planet. It brought organic molecules. And our goal is to decipher how those things came to form the planet we live on today here we do that with a group of scientists here in a museum and a group of collaborators across the country and around the world, including the talented scientist at the osirisrex teen and our colleagues at nasa. And so again i am beyond thrilled, this is something ive dreamed of for 20 years, and today it comes to reality. But its really just the first step. So im going to invite the press if you want to relocate cameras, we will have the unveiling of the exhibit here in just a moment. Thank you. Are we ready . Awesome. Four, three, two, one. So our case contains a model of the Atlas V Rocket that launched the spacecraft in 2016. You can see a model of the spacecraft at the top. This is a model of the actual spacecraft built by lockheed martin, and the arm that reached down and touched the surface for about five seconds. The most important part of this got in the center in the stimulus steel container that prevents the atlas or from reaching sample, we had our sample of asteroid bennu. So here we have as a says a view from the beginning business is really where it all started. This is where the feedstock of life, of motion, of everything you know came from a rock like this and were so happy to unveil this to the American Public and share our journey with them. [applause] questions . Any questions from you all . Get up here. Well, i will just point out you know what the mechanism was, the spacecraft snuck up to the asteroid, and then the arm comes out and it had an explosion of gas that shot into the surface. We didnt know what the surface was going to be like, and as it turned out there was a lot of loose material. And the amount that we thought were going to get, we have many times more well, like a catchers mitt, shooting the gas and then the material shot back up in to that, and that was then contained in a big canister that is about this wide. That canister is down at the Johnson Space center, in a special facility to curate. Heres what happened interesting. They had Something Like 38 bolts on top of the canister. Two of the bolts are having difficulty getting off, so they havent gotten into most of the material is inside the canister. But there was so much material that shot up into that catchers mitt, that we have as much as we expected in the first place that was on the top of the canister when it was all contained. And part of that is what you are seeing here. And they are still trying to figure out how to get those two and bolts undone and not compromise the big sample that is in the container. I think thats a really important part is not compromising the sample. Because this is a sample 75 of this would be curated by nasa into the future. So your grandchildren can come up with a question we cant even imagine now with a technique we havent even thought of inventing. This material will be available from nasa from our colleagues at Johnson Space center in a pristine estate for them to answer questions. This is literally the gift that keeps on giving. Decades of scientists will be able to understand the history of our planned, the history of our solar system from these samples here and this is all available because of the American Public and available here for exhibit to the American Public and the scientists throughout the world. Administer nelson, you mentioned the Asteroid Mission to die morpheus dark mission. Theres a mission on its way for middle after the submission on its way to another set of asteroids. Lucy. So why asteroids . Why now . What has happened to generate this interest in asteroids, not just from the United States but from other countries around the world . Well, lucy was launched years ago. Psyche has been in the planning and the Just Launched a month ago, and is going to an asteroid datacenter between mars and jupiter. Lucy thats on its way from years ago is going to an Asteroid Belt that one of the group of asteroids that its probably thousands if not millions precedes jupiter in its orbit, at another group is right behind jupiter in its orbit. And lucy is going to look at those and is going to determine what they are made of. The other is going specifically to a metallic asteroid were as this one was a stony asteroid. At all of these are giving as clues. The question is why is this asteroid is all happening up at his been in the works for years and years because these are the clues as to how we develop and ultimately as tim said, how we develop life here on this planet. Thank you. How did you choose that particular sample from osirisrex to put on display out of the dozens . Its a really good question. So we had an agreement of how much material we should make available for the American Public, and so three samples will ultimately be going on exhibit one here, where the first, when you space center, houston just outside of Johnson Space center. One of your version of arizona gem and Mineral Museum where the pi is at university of arizona. So its really a matter of finding a stone that we thought was typical of the kind of material, and we needed something that was terrible. We put this in here. It has transport across the country. We want something that is photogenic of something that is relatively flat pics of the winter through five or six or seven stones within this, all within the size range and it is sort of the goldilocks affects. This one was allowed to become a little too small, they found when just right and thats what you did to share with the American Public. [inaudible question] yes. Yes. We actually have a cat scan of this rock that was done in Johnson Space center and we can make that available if you would like. So its a rotational view and then you can actually see the inside of this rock in exquisite detail. Six microns across, only six 1000s of the millimeter is a skill we know the interior structure of this rock. So we wanted to be sure we documented this as thoroughly as possible to make sure we know what the American Public is getting to see. Can you tell us about bennu . Tranten is one of the many near earth asteroids. They are thought to be shortlived, and unstable orbits. So bennu ssi can a or Third Generation asteroid. The original asteroid, the protoasteroid with an Asteroid Belt broke apart through impact and then small asteroid the ship we call the rubble. Think of like a group of marbles stuck together in space. Some of those are unstable orbit and coming to a person crossing orbits. They dont stay there very long, maybe tens of millions of years. We are getting sort of a snapshot of things passing through the inner solar system right now, and bennu is a perfect target because energetically we could get there and we could get back with the sample, and from light reflected from the sun that we could see on earth we could tell that it was rich in carbon which is one of our goals. The Building Blocks of life on our planet, on our unique planet. So it was a perfect target and the mission just worked flawlessly. There were so many things, so many challenges and yet this group of scientists and engineers, and really thousands of individual who worked on this over the course of a decade to make this come to reality. You say you other grains at the museum. [inaudible question] i a coinvestigator and so i am doing mineralogy, basically the textures of the rock and the kinds of minerals that are in it. That gives as clues to how it formed. A certain mineral might tell us about water. Another mineral might tell us about what the early solar system was like before. Water actually flows through these asteroids and change them and want to understand the change. So the next two years the science team will be taking the samples and really trying to intensively understand, not just a history of this asteroid, but the history of water in our solar system and how that water and is organic molecules, the things before life, actually came to our planet and informed oceans and life on our planet, and potentially on other planets in the solar system. I think thats a great point. People of remember these Building Blocks have been delivered all over. Thats why nasa for such an expensive program of looking for life on earth here. [inaudible question] can you talk about the timeline for when people made public at the hands on samples and what sort of evaluation criteria you have for giving to the . So we had a years long planning exercise with the samples that are part of the team. So weve only come up with a simple analysis plan the says how these pictures will be allocated, whos doing what, how where cooperative. We have working group to come together and so the team is exceptionally well organized over years to make this happen. But then the would be a call for other samples to the general scientific public, the people who were not originally involved in the mission. Six months out the would be a catalog release and people can say i want to study the sample for this reason to put in a request. Those will be reviewed because nasa, like all good organization, as the review process to decide what the best side, the best use of bitter, whats the best use of the funding and then those would be available to the general scientific community. We are trying to be very open and transparent about this. Trying to make sure everyone knows what we are learning. This is not a Secretive Club and we really try to make sure that the entire International Scientific Community Benefits from this work. Are the general classifications for the samples . Are the like five categories separating . We dont know yet. So what we do know is theres big stuff and little stuff, right . And thats important because theres only a few of the largest rocks. You want to be careful, the slots of the dust size stuff but thats what the team is doing right now is time to figure out how many different types the material in there and what do each of those types of material tell us. We see different types of material, remember we studied asteroid for two years in orbit. This is a First Mission is both an intensive Orbital Mission of an asteroid and a sample return mission. The first time the u. S. Has done that, this is a first that we have returned a sample from the service of another planetary body in 50 years. The u. S. Has done it since 1972 with apollo 17. So, so using an accomplishment by nasa that hasnt been done since apollo 17. And thats a remarkable thing so were being very careful how we are doing this, being very thoughtful and we really trying to incorporate as many different opinions as a gift to come to a consensus how we treat this material. [inaudible question] no. This material was potentially set aside for public outreach. And so this material will not be used for Scientific Research in the future. That was an agreement with nasa for this. In terms of transport, so i brought two different specimens. One, the Research Specimens i thought i later ntca after flight from houston and took the matter over here. [laughing] and so you know, people, good debbie nta can say the transport a piece of bennu. [laughing] the second piece i actually only got her monday night i landed at 10 p. M. About 10 p. M. And it took over here. I was only one walking in from parking with a sample of the asteroid and walked to security and appear and opened it up and i was beyond thrilled to see it was still in one piece. Was the briefcase handcuffed keira . It was not to let say it it never left my site so, you know. Any other questions to ask handcuffed to the rest. On the other side of the wall is the hope diamond. I was hoping were going to find diamonds and rubies. [laughing] nasa funding. I think we found Something Better than diamonds and rubies. We found water and carbon. Amen. Well said. Thank you to our team. We will be available for other images retina and this will be open for the public when everything included in this location. If you have a question . Okay. Thank you so much. [applause] this week, book tvs afterwards is in prime time, a program where nonfiction authors are interviewed by journalists, legislators and more on their latest books. At 8 00 eastern, Cara Fitzpatrick with her book the death of public school, looking at the pump the School Choice movement. Watch after words all this week at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Go to cspan. Org to get the complete schedule. Weeknights at 9 00 eastern, cspans encore presentation of books that shaped america. We partnered with the library of congress to explore key literature that has had profound impact on our country. Tonight we will feature mark twains 1884 novel adventures of huckleberry finn. Our guest is the chairman of english at the university in indianapolis. Watch our encore presentation of books that shaped america weeknights at 9 00 eastern on cspan. Or go to cspan. Org booksthatsha pedamerica to learn more about each book. This week, watch holiday authors week series featuring live segments with a new writer each morning. Tuesday, david pepper, author and former chair of the Ohio Democratic party, discusses his book. Watch washington journal Tuesday Morning starting at 7 00 eastern with our special holiday authors week series on cspan, cspan now, or online at cspan. Org. President biden and First Lady Jill Biden lit the National Christmas tree near the white house. [applause] hello. Pres. Biden five, four, three, two, one 54321. All right, you got it. All right, they have got it. Merry christmas, everybody jill and i are honored to welcome you. [deck the halls] all right. Agai pres. Biden all right. Again, merry christmas, everyone. Have a seat, if youd like. Jill and i are honored to welcome you to the National Christmas tree lighting. Thanks to the interior secretary deb haaland and the National Park service foundation. Theyre the one doing this. And a special thanks to tonights host, mickey, and all those incredible performers we have here tonight. This is a great tradition, one, as has been pointed out already, weve honored over 100 years, where president s and the people come together to usher in the holiday season. Earlier this week, jill and i announced the theme, jill announced the theme of this years holiday at the white house, magic, wonder, and joy. Three words that capture the essence of christmas and the holidays to rediscover for ourselves the simple joys of the season, from familiar songs to favorite recipes, to open the hearts with simple acts of kindness, especially to those going through hard times. Times and to strengthen the bonds with family and friends as well as with our faith and our community to remember. Were a great nation because were a good people. Thats what i see all across america, including tonight. Joining us are 43 members of team usa represented our nation at the Invictus Games this past september. Give them a hand. Jill and prince harry went to the first Invictus Games in 14 and the Invictus Games in ontario. I was there and 16. Toronto anyway. So its been great, great, great effort that weve seen. And you know, these athletes are incredible Wounded Warriors from Service Branches. Every Service Branch is the essence of who we are as americans. We look to one another and we look out for one another. We leave no one behind and for our best we are united at our best. And were United States of america. We began another holiday season. Lets remember how blessed we are as americans for the gift that is our nation. So merry christmas, america. May god bless you all and may god protect our troops. Merry, merry christmas. And the. Lord. And the. Blood of the. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including chartered communication. Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. We are just getting started. Building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. Chart communications supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other Television Providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. Weeknights at 9 00 eastern, cspans encore presentation of our 10 part series books that shaped america. Cspan partnered with the library of congress which explored pieces of literature that had a profound impact on our country. Tonight, we will feature mark waynes novel adventures of huckleberry finn. Picture mark twains novel adventures of huckleberry finn. Go to cspan. Org books that shaped america to be the series and learn more about each book feured. From the entire staff here at cspan, we wish you happy holidays. Coming up, care fitzpatrick looks at the School Choice movement in the future of education in america. And th books that shaped america explores adventures of a very thin, part of our series created in partnership with the library of congress. Nader, a look at the white House Holiday decorations. President biden honors the legacy of the late senator john mccain. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including comcast. You think this is just a Community Center . No, it is way more than that. 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