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https://theconversation.com/7-years-billions-of-kilometres-a-handful-of-dust-nasa-just-brought-back-the-largest-ever-asteroid-sample-214151>
"After a journey of billions of kilometres, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has
culminated in a small black capsule blazing through the sky before touching
down in the Utah desert.
Inside is likely to be the largest ever sample of dust and rock returned from
an asteroid. Extracted and brought back with great technical ingenuity from an
asteroid called Bennu, scientists will now study in search of clues about the
origins of the Solar System and life itself.
The seven-year mission took OSIRIS-REx to a near-Earth carbon-rich asteroid,
which it orbited for two and a half years, mapping its surface and measuring
properties such as its density and spin. This “rubble pile” asteroid also has a
(very) small chance of one day impacting Earth, so getting intricate
measurements of its orbit and other dynamics was also a mission goal."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
