2023-09-25 04:43:00
NASA scientists announced this at a press conference a few hours following landing on Sunday (local time). The probe had previously dropped the capsule with the sample at an altitude of around 102,000 kilometers above Earth. Protected by a heat shield and slowed down by parachutes, the capsule then landed in the desert of the US state of Utah. According to NASA, it remained undamaged as hoped.
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Asteroid sample dropped by NASA probe landed on Earth
Capsule is currently undergoing “nitrogen purge”.
She was taken by helicopter to a first sterile laboratory near the landing site and subjected to a “nitrogen purge”. This should prevent contamination. On Monday, the sample might then be brought to NASA laboratories in the US state of Texas – where around 200 scientists using 60 different examination methods will work on the material from Tuesday. NASA has announced a press conference for October 11th where the first results of the investigations will be announced. NASA estimates that the capsule contains around 250 grams of debris that was collected from the celestial body around three years ago.
Image: GEORGE FREY (APA/AFP/GEORGE FREY)
If the contents of the capsule turn out as NASA hopes, it would be the first sample of an asteroid successfully brought to Earth in the history of the US space agency – and probably the largest such sample ever taken. In 2005, the Japanese space probe “Hayabusa” landed on an asteroid. In 2010, it brought the first soil samples ever collected from such a celestial body to Earth. There have been other flights to asteroids, but no other probe has yet brought material back to Earth.
Two-year journey to deep black “Bennu”
“Osiris Rex” (the abbreviation stands for: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in September 2016 and arrived at Bennu around two years later. In October 2020, the probe took a sample from the asteroid in a complicated maneuver lasting several hours – the first US missile in space history.
The deep black Bennu, named following an ancient Egyptian deity, has a diameter of around 550 meters and might come quite close to Earth in a good 150 years. Even though the risk of impact is very low, NASA considers Bennu to be one of the most dangerous asteroids currently known – and therefore wants to research it in detail. In addition, scientists hope that the “Osiris Rex” mission, which costs around one billion dollars, will provide insights into the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago, because such asteroids are remnants of it.
“Osiris-Rex” is already on its next mission
The “Osiris-Rex” probe, which is approximately six meters long and weighs 2,100 kilograms, set off for the next asteroid, Apophis, immediately following it was released. According to calculations, the asteroid with a diameter of around 370 meters will fly past Earth at a distance of around 32,000 kilometers in 2029 and might therefore be studied up close for the first time. The mission had already been extended by at least nine years – and now has a new name: “Osiris Apex”.
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