Scientists at the Field Museum can now get a glimpse of 4.5 billion years into the past. This is because the museum is the new temporary home to a tiny piece of a pristine asteroid. The little black fragment came from the near-Earth asteroid called Bennu.

Researchers believe this 4.6-billion-year-old piece of rock could reveal compounds present at the beginning of the solar system and the building blocks of life.

The Field Museum is one of the few research institutions in the country that got a piece of an asteroid snagged in space by NASA.