NASA plans to release asteroid samples brought back to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to the public next week.a The release is scheduled for Wednesday, October 11th at 11am ET. A capsule containing rocks and dust collected from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu has landed at a Pentagon training range. In the Utah desert on September 24thScientists have been working on early analyzes ever since.
In four days, samples taken from the asteroid Bennu will be released to the public. #Osiris Rex Mission.
Tune in live starting Wednesday, October 11th at 11am ET. pic.twitter.com/pqZhDie3HK
— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) October 6, 2023
osiris rex It returned in 2020, spent the next year and a half observing the asteroid from the sky, and began its return to Earth in May 2021. After falling last month, the container was shipped to Houston, Texas, to be opened. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Meanwhile, OSIRIS-REx is still in space, heading towards an asteroid called Apophis with a new mission name: OSIRIS-APEX.
Asteroid Bennu is estimated to be more than 4.5 billion years old, and its material may contain clues to the formation of our solar system and how the building blocks of life arrived on Earth. . And to the delight of scientists, the mission succeeded in capturing more material than anyone expected. “The biggest ‘problem’ is that there is so much material that it is taking longer than expected to collect it,” he said. , Deputy Director of OSIRIS-REx Curation Lead at NASA. With the livestream coming up, we’ll be able to learn more about what they’ve discovered so far in the material.
