They only want to know what it's made of to see how easy it will be to blow up as it's hurtling towards us.
It's a bit more nuanced than that, hoping to find out all sorts of universal secrets. But yh, let's nuke the fk out of it. Yeehah.
The most mindblowing thing about all this is the extent to which Brian May has been involved (although he's not mentioned in this particular article). I know he's a keen space watcher and all that, but flipping heck, the guy's a genius. And he still plays a mean guitar...
There seems to be a trend of rock stars taking up science when they semi-retire from music - Dexter Holland from The Offspring is one of the foremost experts on the HIV virus.
One of the greatest problems in Science that has yet to be solved....how on Earth did he manage it? Hypnosis?
I think they're hoping the data from this space rock might shed some light on the matter. It's definitely baffling to the layman.