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NASA collected a sample from an asteroid for the first time — here’s why it matters (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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NASA collected a sample from an asteroid for the first time — here’s why it matters::NASA retrieved a sample from an asteroid for the first time, providing scientists with material to understand the early origins of the solar system.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in 2016, has collected as much as several hundred grams of asteroid material, which could help scientists understand the earliest stages of the solar system.

“The really precise navigation required to orbit Bennu and to touch down and collect our sample, we were under a meter away from our target,” Sandra Freund, OSIRIS-REx program manager, said in a pre-landing briefing.

This prevents any of Earth’s atmosphere from entering it as it is shipped to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where the canister will be opened for the first time so the sample can be analyzed.

Bennu, the asteroid from which OSIRIS-REx collected its sample, is thought to be made up of material that is around 4.5 billion years old, making it a potential time capsule from the earliest stages of the solar system.

By a fortunate chance of orbital dynamics, it will be able to rendezvous with this asteroid — one of the most famous in the solar system, because it will come close to Earth in the next few years — and study it.

As for the sample from asteroid Bennu, that will be taken to a special facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where work can begin to understand the chemistry of this precious commodity.

The original article contains 1,606 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 87%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I know you're a boy and all, but it's a bit jarring how you've jumped from a quote to an entirely separate "this is how" without explaining how.