2023-09-24 19:36:00
The largest asteroid sample ever collected, and the first by at NASAlanded this Sunday in the American desert of Utah following a dizzying descent through the Earth’s atmosphere, seven years following the Osiris-Rex probe took off.
The fall, observed by military sensors, was stopped by two parachutes.
The sample, taken in 2020 from asteroide Bennucontains regarding 250 grams of material, according to estimates by the US space agency, much more than the two previous asteroid samples collected by Japanese missions.
The head of the space agency, Bill Nelson. announced that this material will “help better understand the types of asteroids that might threaten Earth” and shed light on “the very beginning of the history of the solar system.”
It’s regarding the “largest sample we have recovered from lunar rocks” of the Apollo program, which ended in 1972, informed the agency AFP NASA scientist Amy Simon before landing.
Approximately four hours before its scheduled landing time, the Osiris-Rex probe released the capsule containing the sample, more than 100,000 kilometers from Earth.
During the last 13 minutes, this capsule passed through the atmosphere: it entered at more than 44,000 km/h and reached a temperature of 2,700°C. The probe continued its mission towards another asteroid.
NASA warned of an asteroid the size of fifteen collectives that is approaching Earth
Two Japanese samples
Once the capsule reached the ground, a team equipped with gloves and masks checked its condition, before placing it in a net, lifting it towards a helicopter.
The capsule should be exposed to the desert sand for as little time as possible to avoid any contamination of the sample that might distort subsequent analyses.
On Monday the sample will be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There the box will open, in another airtight room. The process would take days.
NASA plans a press conference on October 11 to reveal initial results.
Most of the sample will be preserved for the study of future generations. Around the 25% will be used immediately for experiments and a small part will be shared with partners, Japan and Canada.
Japan gave NASA fragments of the Ryugu asteroid, of which it recovered 5.4 grams in 2020, during the Hayabusa-2 mission. In 2010, he reported a microscopic amount of another asteroid.
The sample of Determine It is “much larger, so we will be able to do much more analysis,” Simon detailed.
They claim that NASA found life on Mars during the 1970s, but disintegrated it by accident
The mysterious origin of the solar system
Asteroids are composed of the original materials of the solar system, which, unlike Earth, remained intact. They contain “clues regarding how the solar system formed and evolved”explained Melissa Morris, director of NASA’s Osiris-Rex program. “It is the story of our own origin.”
By crashing into our planet, “we think that asteroids and comets brought organic matter, potentially water, that helped develop life on Earth,” Simon said.
Scientists believe Bennu (500 meters in diameter) is rich in carbon and contains water molecules encased in minerals.
The surface of the asteroid turned out to be less dense than expected. Better understanding its composition might prove useful in the future.
There is a small risk (one chance in 2,700) that Bennu will hit Earth in 2182, which would be catastrophic. In 2022, NASA managed to divert the trajectory of an asteroid by impacting it.
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