2023-09-25 10:30:43
A probe of the Nasa carrying the largest soil sample ever collected from an asteroid returned to earth on Sunday, in a vast military field in the Utah desert, following a journey of seven years and six billion kilometers.
The OSIRIS-REx robotic spacecraft landed in a designated area west of Salt Lake City at a large US Army camp, delivering rock samples to scientists that might provide clues to the early days of the solar system.
The round-shaped capsule, which weighs 50 kilograms and measures around 80 centimeters in diameter, collected its precious specimen from a small carbon-rich asteroid, Bennu, discovered in 1999.
500 meters long, this cluster of rock passes relatively close to Earth every six years, but the probability of it colliding with the blue planet is considered very low.
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Launched in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx probe arrived at Bennu in 2018 and collected approximately 250 grams of rock samples from the asteroid in 2020. After sending the sample capsule to Earth, the spacecraft left for its next mission on the asteroid.
This is only the third asteroid sample brought back to earth, and the largest to date, following two similar missions by the Japanese space agency in 2010 and 2020.
The majority of the sample will be preserved for study by future generations. About 25% will be immediately used for experiments, and a small part will be shared with partners Japan and Canada.
Like other asteroids, Bennu is a relic of the early solar system. The fact that its mineralogy, among other things, has remained virtually unchanged since its formation more than 4 billion years ago, gives it great importance for studying the origin and development of planets, including Earth.
Researchers believe such asteroids may have collided with ancient Earth, potentially providing the fundamental building blocks of oceans and life.
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