A NASA spacecraft carrying the most extensive soil sample ever collected from an asteroid is set to return to Earth on Sunday. It's anticipated to streak through the atmosphere and deploy a parachute landing in the Utah desert, delivering its celestial specimen to scientists, Reuters reports.
The robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to release the capsule, resembling a gumdrop and containing approximately a cup of gravelly asteroid material, at 6:42 a.m. EDT (10:42 GMT) for its final descent to Earth, concluding a seven-year journey. The capsule is expected to touch down slightly over four hours later within a 250-square-mile (650-sq-km) landing zone west of Salt Lake City on the U.S. military's vast Utah Test and Training Range.
If the mission succeeds, it would mark the third asteroid sample, and the largest by far, ever returned to Earth for analysis. The mission is a collaborative effort between NASA and the University of Arizona, and it collected its specimen from Bennu, a small, carbon-rich asteroid classified as a "near-Earth object" due to its relatively close passes by our planet every six years, although the odds of an impact are remote.
Measuring just 500 m (1,600 ft) across, Bennu is akin to a rubble pile composed of loose rocks, slightly wider than the Empire State Building is tall but minuscule compared to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 mn years ago. Like other asteroids, Bennu is a relic from the early solar system, offering vital insights into the origins and development of rocky planets like Earth.
It may even contain organic molecules similar to those required for the emergence of life.
Samples from the Japanese mission Hayabusa2, collected three years ago from Ryugu, another near-Earth asteroid, were found to contain two organic compounds, supporting the hypothesis that celestial objects such as comets, asteroids, and meteorites that bombarded early Earth carried the primordial ingredients for life.
OSIRIS-REx, launched in September 2016, arrived at Bennu in 2018, spent nearly two years orbiting the asteroid, and used its robot arm on October 20, 2020, to collect a sample of the loose surface material. In May 2021, the spacecraft departed Bennu for a 1.2-bn-mile (1.9-bn-km) journey back to Earth, which included two orbits around the sun. If mission control orders the planned release of the sample-return capsule, it will be jettisoned within 67,000 miles of Earth for the final stage of its return journey.
As it enters the upper atmosphere at 35 times the speed of sound, the capsule is expected to glow red-hot, with temperatures inside the vessel reaching 5,000°F (2,800°C). Parachutes will deploy near the end of the descent, slowing the capsule to around 11 mph before it gently falls to the desert floor in northwestern Utah.
The Bennu sample weighs an estimated 250 grams (8.8 ounces), significantly surpassing the 5 grams of material retrieved from Ryugu in 2020 and the small specimen from asteroid Itokawa in 2010.
Scientists are hopeful that the capsule and inner container housing the asteroid material will maintain their integrity during re-entry and landing, preserving the sample's purity and preventing terrestrial contamination.
Upon arrival, the sample will be transported by helicopter to a "clean room" at the Utah test range for initial examination before being transferred to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, it will be divided into smaller specimens and distributed to approximately 200 scientists in 60 laboratories worldwide.
The primary part of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is expected to continue on to explore another near-Earth asteroid named Apophis.
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