OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.It is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid.
NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft successfully delivered its first asteroid sample to Earth on Sunday morning, landing safely near Salt Lake City, Utah. The sample is a capsule of rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu, which is thought to be one of the most primitive objects in our solar system.
According to The Hill, The sample was taken by helicopter to a temporary clean room where it was connected to a continuous flow of nitrogen to keep out contaminants from Earth, leaving the sample pure for research.
Scientists believe that the capsule may hold at least a cup of rubble but will not be sure until the container is opened in the coming days, as per The Associated Press, which said the sample marks the biggest haul from beyond the Moon.
According to reports, the sample will be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where scientists will dissemble the canister, take inventory of the rocks and dust and eventually distribute the pieces to scientists around the world.
Today's #OSIRISREx asteroid sample landing isn't just the end of a 7-year, 3.9-billion-mile journey through space. It takes us 4.5 billion years back in time.
These rocks will help us understand the origin of organics and water that may have seeded life on Earth.… pic.twitter.com/sHLRrnWqAg— NASA (@NASA) September 24, 2023
In 2016, scientists at the University of Arizona launched the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on a mission to collect rock and soil samples from asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft arrived in 2018 and successfully completed its mission in 2020 by collecting the sample.
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