2023-09-26 15:01:39
The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in September 2016, managed to collect dust and rock samples from Bennu on October 20, 2020 after briefly touching the asteroid’s surface with a robotic arm. On May 10, the spacecraft began its return to Earth and this Sunday, about 100,000 kilometers away, it released the capsule with the precious cargo.
The capsule descended until it reached a speed of 5.5 meters per second and deployed three parachutes that stopped its fall. A recovery team located it and transported it by helicopter to a temporary clean room, where any contamination was removed to keep the sample pure.
It will be studied at NASA’s Johnson Space Center
The capsule was then sent to its final destination: NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, scientists have disassembled the container, extracted and weighed the sample, which is estimated to be close to 250 grams, and are creating an inventory of the rocks and dust collected.
More than 230 scientists will study 25% of the sample
In the coming months, 25% of the material will be distributed among more than 230 scientists from different institutions and countries so that they can begin an investigation that will last at least two years. The rest will be analyzed in Houston and a small part will be preserved intact so that, in the future, scientists not yet born can study it with technologies that have not yet been invented.
The objective is for the OSIRIS-REx mission to answer questions about the origin of the Solar System and life on Earth that still have no answers. Asteroid Bennu is one of the oldest objects in the Solar System and is believed to contain organic material and prebiotic molecules that could have contributed to the emergence of life.
The OSIRIS mission continues
Meanwhile, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will continue its journey through space to explore another asteroid, Apophis, which it will arrive in 2029. This is a rocky body potentially dangerous for Earth, as it could impact our planet in the future.
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