“It may represent the seeds of life.” The largest sample from an asteroid to land on Earth
The largest sample ever collected from an asteroid, and the first as part of a NASA mission, landed on Sunday in the desert of the US state of Utah following a very rapid final descent through the Earth's atmosphere, seven years after the launch of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
Two successive parachutes suppressed the landing process, which the army followed via sensors, allowing the capsule to reach the required speed of 17 kilometers per hour when landing on the ground.
About twenty minutes after landing, a team arrived at the site to check the status of the capsule. NASA confirmed that no damage was caused to it.
After its launch seven years ago, the OSIRIS-REx probe collected stones and dust from the asteroid Bennu in 2020, after which it began its return journey.
250 grams of materials
In parallel, the sample includes about 250 grams of material, according to NASA estimates.
The capsule was wrapped and placed in a net that was lifted by a helicopter to transport it to a temporary “clean room.”
The capsule should also be exposed to the American desert sand for the shortest possible period, in order to avoid any contamination of the sample that could distort subsequent analyses.
The sample is scheduled to be transferred on Monday to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where the box will be opened in another sealed room, in a process that will take days.
Asteroids are interesting because they are composed of the original materials of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. While these materials changed on Earth, the asteroids remained intact.
"Seeds of life"
In turn, the mission's chief scientist at the University of Arizona, Dante Lauretta, said that Bennu is rich in carbon, and the sample that was brought "may represent the seeds of life that these asteroids carried at the beginning of our planet, which led to this amazing biosphere."
Bennu, which has a diameter of 500 meters, orbits the Sun and approaches Earth every six years.
There is a small risk (one in 2,700) that it will collide with Earth in 2182, which could have a catastrophic impact. Providing more data on its composition may be useful. Last year, NASA was able to deviate an asteroid from its path by colliding with it.
Source: websites