Today, NASA’s “Osiris-Rex” probe will drop a sample of asteroids over Earth. The European Road collapsed after a landslide in Sweden

NASA’s Osiris-Rex probe will drop a sample of the asteroid Bennu above the Utah desert on Sunday. According to NASA estimates, the capsule contains about 250 grams of debris collected from the celestial body about three years ago. It will leave the probe about 62,000 miles above Earth.

Protected by a heat shield, the capsule will then enter Earth’s atmosphere (around 4:42 PM CEST) and land using parachutes approximately 13 minutes later in an area of ​​approximately 58 by 14 kilometers. After landing, it will be taken to NASA laboratories in the US state of Texas for examination, where approximately 200 scientists will then work on the sample using 60 different research methods.

If all works out, this would be the first asteroid sample successfully brought back to Earth in NASA 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.

There was also an accident: the lid of the collection container was slightly pried open by larger stones, allowing parts of the sample to escape. NASA scientists still assume there is enough material in the containment container. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” NASA scientist Lori Glaze said at a news conference Friday.

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 $1 billion Osiris-Rex mission will provide insight into the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago, because asteroids are remnants of that system.

The ‘Osiris-Rex’ probe, which is about six meters long and weighs 2,100 kilograms, would make its way to the next asteroid, Apophis, immediately after falling. 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 therefore has a new name: ‘Osiris Apex’. (sda/dpa)