The OSIRIS-REx instrument dropped a capsule containing soil from an altitude of 102 thousand kilometers. Researchers are confident that the asteroid contains chemical elements that are approximately 4.5 billion years old.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe has landed at a test site in Utah with a sample of asteroid Bennu. According to NASA’s website, rocks and dust from an asteroid have been brought to Earth for the first time in US history.
A team of NASA scientists and engineers from defense company Lockheed Martin was the first to reach the probe’s landing site. Experts examined his condition and measured the gas level around the capsule.
“When we first arrive at the hangar, the team will open the capsule. [с камнями и пылью с астероида] and will begin to clean it from dirt and dust. “Of course, we won’t be able to get it completely clean,” explained Richard Witherspoon, Lockheed Martin OSIRIS-REx ground recovery manager.
Lockheed Martin engineers placed covers over the capsule’s air vents to protect the sample from possible contamination.
The capsule, weighing approximately 46 kilograms, has been flying in the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 44,000 km/h for the last 13 minutes. The OSIRIS-REx instrument dropped a capsule containing asteroid soil at an altitude of 102 thousand kilometers above the Earth.
History of the mission to asteroid Bennu
Asteroid Bennu, with a diameter of 550 meters, was discovered in 1999. Researchers are confident that it contains fragments of chemical elements that are approximately 4.5 billion years old.
NASA chose Bennu for its proximity to Earth’s orbit; The mission to discover it cost approximately $800 million.
NASA experts consider Bennu the most dangerous asteroid for Earth because it may approach Earth in the next 150 years.
Note that during the planning of the OSIRIS-REx mission, NASA scientists were inspired by the success of the Japanese Hayabusa mission. In 2010, the spacecraft retrieved rock samples from the Itokawa asteroid and returned them to Earth.
Focus He had previously written that an asteroid the size of half a football field could fall to Earth within 23 years. Scientists have calculated that asteroids that could destroy human civilization hit Earth every few million years.
Source: Focus
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