NASA takes 1st asteroid rock sample
Print Edition
A NASA spacecraft touched down on the rugged surface of the Bennu asteroid on Tuesday, grabbing a sample of rocks dating back to the birth of our solar system to bring home.
The minivan-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft鈥檚 3.35-meter robotic arm plucked the sample near the north pole, NASA鈥檚 first handful of pristine asteroid rocks.
鈥淪ample collection is complete, and the back-away burn has executed,鈥 said Mission operator Estelle Church.
The probe was set to send back images of the sample collection yesterday and throughout the week so scientists can examine how much material was retrieved and whether the probe will need to make another collection.
If a successful collection is confirmed, the spacecraft will journey back toward Earth, arriving in 2023.
Bennu, over 160 million kilometers away and formed in the early days of our solar system, could hold clues to the origins of life on Earth. Asteroids are debris from the solar system鈥檚 formation.
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