NASA's OSIRIS-REx Successfully Delivers Largest Asteroid Sample to Earth
TL;DR
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is set to return to Earth with the largest-ever sample extracted from the asteroid Bennu. After a seven-year journey, the spacecraft will land in Utah's West Desert, where scientists will study the 4.5-billion-year-old space dust to learn more about the asteroid's composition and potential for delivering life-forming compounds to Earth. The sample is not expected to contain contaminants and will be retrieved by scientists for analysis. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will be repurposed to study another near-Earth asteroid, Apophis, in 2029.
Topics:top-newsspace-exploration#asteroid-bennu#nasa#osiris-rex#sample-return#space-dust#space-exploration
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REx to bring samples of asteroid Bennu to Earth: What to know Al Jazeera English
- Osiris-Rex: Nasa awaits fiery return of asteroid Bennu samples BBC
- A 7-year journey to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth will soon end in Utah CNN
- How to Watch NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Retrieve Asteroid Samples From Space The New York Times
- Largest asteroid sample ever collected is coming down to Earth Phys.org
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