The OSIRIS-REx mission released its capsule containing a sample taken from the asteroid Bennu early this morning, and it landed in the Utah desert.
NASA has succeeded in returning its first sample of an asteroid to Earth, as the OSIRIS-REx mission released its capsule containing a sample taken from the asteroid Bennu early this morning. The sample landed in the Utah desert this afternoon, Sunday September 24. It was then collected and taken to a temporary clean room. Next, it will be sent on to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to be opened and studied.
OSIRIS-REx has “brought something extraordinary: the largest asteroid sample ever received on Earth,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on NASA TV. “It’s going to help scientists investigate planet formation, it’s going to improve our understanding of asteroids that could possibly impact the Earth, and it’ll deepen our understanding of the origin of our solar system and its formation.
