NASA scientists are just beginning to reveal details about roughly 250 grams of dust and rocks brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu. The samples are the result of the first U.S. mission to return a sample from an asteroid, and the largest cache of material ever collected beyond the orbit of the moon.
The mission began seven years ago when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left Earth to rendezvous with Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid that may hold clues to the formation of the solar system and the origin of life on Earth. OSIRIS-REx lightly touched down on Bennu in 2020, scooped up a coffee cup–sized sample and sealed it away for the long trip back home (SN: 10/21/20) .
OSIRIS-REx jettisoned its sample return capsule back to Earth on September 24 (SN: 9/22/23). The spacecraft continued on its way, under the new name OSIRIS-APEX, as it headed out on its next mission — going into orbit around the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.
The capsule containing the Bennu samples parachuted down to a desert landing site in Utah, where it was picked up and helicoptered to NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston. NASA scientists carefully opened the capsule in a dedicated clean room designed to ensure that the pristine asteroid material wouldn’t be contaminated by any terrestrial material.
2023-10-11 13:20:45
Source from www.sciencenews.org