NASA spacecraft returns to Earth with largest asteroid sample ever made

A capsule containing asteroid samples was released from NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft and landed safely in the Utah desert on Sunday morning (24) at 8:52 am local time (11:52 am in Brasília). This is the largest soil sample ever collected from the surface of an asteroid.Scientists expect that this 250 grams of Bennu will give clues about how our planet became habitable.

After a seven-year round trip to the small celestial body, which is part of the near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), American spacecraft traveled 6.21 billion kilometers to collect rocks and dust. In addition to being the first of its kind by NASA, it “provides a window into when the Sun and planets formed,” the agency says.

In the live broadcast of the historic event broadcast on the social network X, the official commentator said: “Landing of the Osiris-Rex sample return capsule!” As he makes his announcement, mission members applaud enthusiastically in a nearby control center. After its entry speed was slowed by two parachutes, the tire-sized capsule landed nose down on the sandy desert floor.

The long journey of OSIRIS-REx

Thanks to you too @UofArizona And @LockheedMartin Thank you for working with us on history. #OSIRISREx mission! Also special thanks @US Air Force And @American army For a safe place to land. pic.twitter.com/5JYcNzYAZP

– NASA (@NASA) September 24, 2023

Launched on September 8, 2016, OSIRIS-Rex (English acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, and Regolith Explorer) landed on Bennu on December 3, 2018, and surprisingly, supposedly sank compactly. A child was in the ball pit.

The spacecraft, which was delivered at an altitude of 108,000 kilometers, restarted its engines and moved away from Earth, this time changing its route towards a rendezvous with the Apophis asteroid. The probability of this space object, which is 370 meters in diameter, hitting our planet after 2182 is very small (1 in 2.7 thousand).

How important are asteroid samples?

Surprisingly, One of the most critical moments of the current mission occurred within an hour and a half of the capsule being transported from the desert by helicopter to the “clean room” set up in the hangar at the training camp.

This is because the samples are subjected to a “nitrogen purge” process., In the words of scientists, it is essential to ensure a constant flow of gas in the container to prevent the entry of any terrestrial contaminants.

Scientists found that Bennu, an asteroid with a diameter of 500 meters, It must be rich in carbon and water molecules trapped in minerals, which are the main “ingredients” of life on Earth. Therefore, studying these samples means knowing “our own origin story,” NASA says.

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