2023-09-27 09:59:40
NASA has started to open the Osiris-Rex mission capsule that collected pieces of asteroid. She announced Tuesday that she found “black dust and debris” inside, even before reaching the bulk of the sample.
Seven years following takeoff, the capsule landed on Earth on Sunday, in the American desert, following a high-risk maneuver.
>> Read: The largest asteroid sample ever collected has landed in the United States
NASA estimates that it managed to collect around 250 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu in 2020 – the largest asteroid sample ever collected.
At the time of this operation, the space agency realized that the flap of the collection compartment was unable to close. But the cargo had finally managed to be secured by being transferred as planned to the capsule.
Because of this leak, however, scientists expected that residues would be found outside the collection compartment, in the box where it was placed.
A first aluminum cover was opened Tuesday, in a sealed chamber specially built for the Osiris-Rex mission at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. NASA teams then immediately “found black dust and debris,” the agency announced, without saying whether they were indeed pieces of an asteroid.
Better understand the formation of the Solar System
This material will be analyzed, and the “careful disassembly process” of the collection compartment will take place, “in order to access the main sample inside” it, wrote the space agency. Analyzing the composition of the asteroid Bennu should allow scientists to better understand the formation of the Solar System and how the Earth became habitable.
A live broadcast on the NASA channel is scheduled for October 11 to “unveil the sample” during disassembly.
>> A video in English showing how NASA will study samples from the asteroid Bennu:
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