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Cosmic Treasure: NASA's Asteroid Mission Delivers Ancient Secrets
21 Oct
Summary
- OSIRIS-REx returned the largest asteroid sample ever collected.
- Sample contains organic building blocks crucial for life's origin.
- Spacecraft now heads to a new asteroid, Apophis, by 2029.
NASA has formally concluded its OSIRIS-REx mission, marking the first time a U.S. spacecraft has returned a sample from an asteroid. The mission successfully collected material from Bennu, an ancient space rock dating back over 4.5 billion years.
This pristine sample contains crucial organic building blocks, similar to those that may have initiated life on Earth. The mission faced numerous obstacles, including unexpected surface conditions on Bennu and a jammed sample collector, requiring on-the-fly problem-solving by the dedicated team.
Despite challenges, the returned sample is the largest ever retrieved from an asteroid, weighing 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams). Scientists are actively studying this material, with over 200 research papers already published, revealing insights into early solar system history and the presence of amino acids and sugars.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, now renamed OSIRIS-APEX, has been repurposed for a new journey. It is heading towards another near-Earth asteroid, Apophis, and is projected to reach it in 2029.
