• NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Space: 250 Grams of Material from Asteroid Bennu Reach Earth

NASA on Tuesday opened the probe of the OSIRIS-REx mission that collected fragments of an asteroid and announced that it found "black dust and debris" inside, although it has not yet examined the bulk of the sample.

Seven years after liftoff, the probe landed Sunday in the U.S. desert in Utah after a high-risk maneuver.

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Space.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission: 250 grams of material from asteroid Bennu reach Earth

  • Writing: TERESA GUERRERO

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission: 250 grams of material from asteroid Bennu reach Earth

Space.

OSIRIS-REx mission: A "time capsule" with 250 grams of asteroid Bennu will land today in the Utah desert

  • Writing: TERESA GUERRERO Madrid

OSIRIS-REx mission: A "time capsule" with 250 grams of asteroid Bennu will land today in the Utah desert

The sample, taken in 2020 from asteroid Bennu, contains about 250 grams of material, according to estimates by the US space agency.

During that operation, NASA realized that the lid of the collecting vessel could not be closed. But finally the sample was secured and transferred to the probe as planned.

However, due to this failure, scientists expected to find remains of the sample outside the collection compartment, in the box where it was placed.

On Tuesday, a first lid was opened in an airtight chamber at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA teams immediately "found black dust and debris," the space agency announced, without specifying whether they were asteroid fragments.

This material will be analyzed and a "careful process of disassembly" of the collection compartment will be carried out, "in order to access the main sample inside," the space agency wrote.

A press conference is scheduled for October 11 to "publicize the exhibition."

Analysis of the composition of asteroid Bennu will allow scientists to better understand how the Solar System formed and how Earth became habitable.

Scientists believe that this space body (500 meters in diameter) isrich in carbon and contains water molecules locked in minerals.

There is a small risk (a chance in 2,700) that Bennu will hit Earth in 2182, which would be catastrophic. In 2022, NASA managed to deflect the trajectory of an asteroid by impacting it.

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