An unmanned spacecraft carrying a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid sample is set to touch down on Earth after a years-long expedition.
The sample – the third ever extracted from a space rock cruising through the solar system – is the largest ever brought back to the planet and will be studied by scientists around the world after the OSIRIS-REx lands in the desert of the US state of Utah on Sunday.
It will complete a seven-year, 1.9-billion-km (1.2-billion-mile) journey with researchers eager to discover what the space dust from the carbon-rich Bennu asteroid will reveal.
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) is an unmanned spacecraft from NASA that was sent to collect samples from Bennu.
The spacecraft was equipped with cameras to capture images that were essential to collecting samples from the asteroid during the mission. It was also equipped with materials to develop 3D maps of Bennu, measure its temperature, map its mineral and chemical composition, and view it in X-rays and infrared light.
The robotic arm attached to the <a href="https://news.ad-astra.icu/what-you-need-to-know-nasas-osiris-rex-mission-bringing-asteroid-bennu-samples-to-earth.html” title=”What You Need to Know: NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Bringing Asteroid Bennu Samples to Earth”>spacecraft collected loose rocks and dirt from the asteroid’s surface, which were then sealed inside the sample return capsule.
Link from www.aljazeera.com