NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has returned the largest space sample collected since the Apollo program, taken from the primordial asteroid Bennu.
At 8:52 a.m. local time today, a mini fridge-size capsule carrying rock samples from the asteroid Bennu parachuted down at the United States Army’s Utah Test and Training Range, about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The capsule had been in space for 2,572 days, and its return marks the conclusion of the first U.S. asteroid sample-return mission: OSIRIS-REx .
Before beginning its descent through Earth’s atmosphere at 27,650 miles an hour, the capsule spent four hours traveling through space after being released from the OSIRIS craft. After landing in Utah, it will be transported to a specially constructed clean room on the army base. From there, the capsule’s precious contents will make their way to Johnson Space Center outside Houston.Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on Jan. 6, 2019, was created by combining two images taken by the NavCam 1 imager aboard NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.The mission’s roots stretch back to 1999, when astronomers turned their telescopes to the asteroid belt, a collection of millions of rocks, small and large, that orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter.
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