The first sample of an asteroid successfully brought back to Earth will be examined starting Tuesday

After NASA’s ‘Osiris-Rex’ probe successfully dropped a sample of debris from the asteroid Bennu to Earth, it could be examined in the laboratory as early as Tuesday. NASA scientists announced this at a press conference a few hours after the landing on Sunday (local time). The probe had previously dropped the capsule containing the sample at an altitude of about 102,000 kilometers above Earth. Protected by a heat shield and slowed down by parachutes, the capsule then landed in the desert of the American state of Utah. According to NASA, it remained undamaged as hoped.

She was taken by helicopter to a first sterile laboratory near the landing site and subjected to a “nitrogen purge”. This should prevent contamination. On Monday, the sample could then be taken to NASA laboratories in the US state of Texas, where from Tuesday around 200 scientists will work on the material using 60 different research methods. NASA has announced a press conference for October 11 where the first results of the studies will be announced. According to NASA estimates, the capsule contains about 250 grams of debris collected from the celestial body about three years ago.

If the capsule’s contents turn out as NASA hopes, it would be the first asteroid sample successfully delivered to Earth in the U.S. space agency’s history — and likely the largest sample ever taken. In 2005, the Japanese space probe ‘Hayabusa’ landed on an asteroid. In 2010, it brought the first soil samples ever collected from such a celestial body to Earth. There have been other flights to asteroids, but no other probe has yet brought material back to Earth.

“Osiris Rex” (the acronym stands for: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in September 2016 and arrived at Bennu about two years later. In October 2020, the probe took a sample of the asteroid during a complicated maneuver lasting several hours: the first American rocket in space history.

The deep black Bennu, named after an ancient Egyptian deity, has a diameter of about 550 meters and could come very close to Earth in more than 150 years. Even though the risk of an impact is very low, NASA considers Bennu to be one of the most dangerous asteroids currently known – and therefore wants to investigate it in detail. The scientists also hope that the Osiris-Rex mission, which will cost about a billion dollars, will provide insight into the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago, because such asteroids are remnants of it.

The ‘Osiris-Rex’ probe, which is about six meters long and weighs 2,100 kilograms, took off immediately after it fell to the next asteroid, Apophis. According to calculations, the asteroid with a diameter of about 370 meters will fly past the Earth at a distance of about 32,000 kilometers in 2029 and can therefore be studied up close for the first time. The mission had already been extended by at least nine years – and now has a new name: ‘Osiris Apex’. (sda/dpa)