A chunk of a huge asteroid which passes earth every six years has just landed on earth.
Nasa has taken ‘pristine’ samples of the asteroid, named Bennu, for analysis and the samples have made their landing in the Utah desert via a parachute.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been gathering rocks and dust from Bennu’s surface since 2020, after being launched in 2016 as part of Nasa’s first mission to collect samples from an asteroid.
In a flyby of earth, the main spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles away.
The small capsule landed four hours later as the mothership set off after another asteroid.
Nasa staff stood at their desks and applauded as the fragment made its safe landing, around three minutes ahead of schedule.
From its landing point 70 miles west of Salt Lake City, the capsule and its samples will be taken to Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Special tools have been developed for the analysis, including those to look at material smaller than a grain of sand.
The team hopes Bennu will provide insight into the role of asteroids in the formation of the early solar system – it is predicted to be 4.5 billion years old, essentially serving as a time capsule full of cosmic secrets.
Nasa will take two years to complete its analysis of the asteroid – which still leaves more than 150 years before a potential collision.
A quarter of the sample will be given to a group of more than 200 people from 38 globally distributed institutions, including a team of scientists from the University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum.
Scientists estimate the capsule holds at least a cup of rubble, but won’t know for sure until the container is opened.
Some spilled and floated away when the spacecraft scooped up too much and rocks jammed the container’s lid during collection three years ago.
Japan, the only other country to bring back asteroid samples, gathered about a teaspoon in a pair of asteroid missions.
The pebbles and dust represent the biggest haul from beyond the moon.
Preserved building blocks from the dawn of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, the samples will help scientists better understand how earth and life formed.
Scientists reckon Bennu could one day collide with earth, and has had three close encounters in 1999, 2005, and 2011, Sky News reports.
The asteroid could potentially drift into earth’s orbit by September 2182 – and there’s a 1 in 2,700 chance that Bennu could hit the planet during that year.
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