Selfies with an asteroid fragment

A sample Asteroid Bennu is put on public display for the first time at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. — AFP

IN a hushed room of a museum in Washington DC, cameras and cellphones focus on a tiny piece of rock, no larger than a piece of gravel.

The fragment might seem insignificant, but it is a sample taken from the asteroid Bennu, which scientists are studying in the hope of discovering if asteroids actually brought the building blocks of life – carbon and water – to Earth.