A NASA spacecraft captured a soil sample from an asteroid that may come close to hitting Earth in the next 200 years and parachuted the capsule into the Utah desert Sunday morning.
The flyover marks a successful mission for NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft, which dropped samples from asteroid Bennu while flying about 63,000 miles from Earth’s surface.
The tire-sized space capsule rockets through Earth’s atmosphere at 27,000 mph from space, carrying about 9 ounces of rocks, dust and dirt.
About four hours after lifting off the capsule – which collected the largest soil sample ever collected from the surface of an asteroid – the capsule touched down in a designated landing zone west of Salt Lake City at the US military’s sprawling Utah Test and Training Field.
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft touched down in the Utah desert on Sunday morning, ending a seven-year mission. NASA/AFP via Getty Images
The capsule flew through Earth’s atmosphere at 10:42 am EST.
After completing its seven-year mission, NASA’s Osirius-Rex spacecraft — which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer — is headed for another asteroid.
“We have a touchdown!” Operation Recovery Mission was announced, immediately repeating the news because the landing happened three minutes earlier.
Osiris-Rex launched its first trip to Bennu in 2016. Since then, it has departed for another asteroid. AP
“It was like ‘Wow!'” said NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who was in Utah training for her own space capsule mission. “This is amazing. It can go from the movies, but this is reality.
Scientists believe the capsule contains at least a cup of debris from Bennu, but they won’t know for sure until the container is opened. During a mission three years ago, some debris spilled and floated after the spacecraft overfilled the capsule and caused the container lid to jam.
Osiris-Rex launched its first trip to Bennu in 2016 and reached the asteroid two years later. By the time it returns in 2020, the spacecraft will have traveled 4 billion miles.
The spacecraft is retrieving debris from Bennu, a dangerous asteroid about 50 million miles from Earth. NASA/AFP via Getty Images
Bennu, which orbits the sun about 50 million miles from Earth, is about the size of the Empire State Building but shaped like a spinning top.
Scientists say what they learn from the asteroid’s debris could be important in the years to come, as Bennu is expected to come dangerously close to Earth in 2182 — perhaps close enough to hit.
Although Bennu is the most dangerous known asteroid in the solar system — and large enough to cause significant destruction on Earth — the odds of Bennu crashing into Earth are only 1 in 2,700, reports Space.com.
Scientists say what they learn from the asteroid’s debris could be important, as Bennu is expected to come dangerously close to Earth in 2182 — perhaps close enough to hit. AFP via Getty Images
“I think people of the future will be well equipped to deal with Bennu, especially because of the amount of information we have gathered. [at Bennu],” Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, previously told Space.com.
“I like to think of it as one of our gifts to future generations.”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the sample returning to Earth on Sunday will provide “a remarkable glimpse into the beginnings of our solar system.”
NASA plans to show off what it brought back from Bennu in October. AFP via Getty Images
The sample will be flown Monday morning to a new laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, which houses hundreds of pounds of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts.
NASA plans to share what it brought back from Bennu in October.
Osiris-Rex has moved to the asteroid Apophis, which it will reach in 2029.
With Postal wire.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
