NASA’s OSIRIS REx spacecraft drops a capsule containing samples of asteroid Bennu in Uttah

On Sunday (24 September), US area company NASA’s OSIRIS REx spacecraft launched the capsule that incorporates a chunk of near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. As per official info, the capsule descended by area for 4 hours after which entered the environment over California, subsequently touchdown about 13 minutes later in Utah.

The #OSIRISREx spacecraft has launched the capsule containing a chunk of asteroid Bennu. The capsule will plummet by area for 4 hours, enter the environment over California and land about 13 minutes later in Utah. https://t.co/lK5QmILjtj pic.twitter.com/gECoNC1sHU

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) September 24, 2023

The pattern capsule incorporates an estimated 8.8 ounces (250 grams) of asteroid rocks and soil from asteroid Bennu and it landed close to Salt Lake City at 10:55 AM ET at this time (8:25 PM IST). A restoration mission has been launched to find and retrieve the capsule.

Earlier within the day, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft reached inside 63,000 miles of Earth’s floor which is about one-third the gap from Earth to the moon. From there, the spacecraft launched the pattern capsule at round 6:42 AM ET. 

The capsule then travelled for 4 hours at 27,650 miles per hour and entered Earth’s environment at round 10:42 AM ET (8:12 PM IST) off the northern California coast at an altitude of about 83 miles above the floor. 13 minutes later, the capsule lastly landed at an space on the defence division’s Utah Test and Training Range close to Salt Lake City. Parachutes have been deployed to gradual the capsule to a delicate landing at 11 miles per hour (17.7 kilometres per hour).

Notably, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security and Regolith Explorer. This seven-year mission deliberate to check what scientists have described as essentially the most harmful rock within the Solar System started in 2016 when it lifted off with an intention to gather samples from the Bennu asteroid. It then started orbiting Bennu in 2018 and the spacecraft later collected the pattern in 2020 utilizing an extended sting vacuum and subsequently set off on its prolonged return journey to Earth in May 2021.

Now, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft has introduced again the pristine pattern collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. It’s NASA’s first time returning an asteroid pattern from area. Earlier, Japan had collected round a teaspoonful of samples in two asteroid missions.

The capsule has no GPS tracker onboard so it was noticed utilizing long-range telescopes and infrared cameras, BBC reported. Recovery and analysis groups are reaching the touchdown web site in 4 helicopters, and they’ll take a lot of precautions earlier than retrieving the capsule. First, they may conduct an aerial research to substantiate that it’s not broken. After that, they may anticipate the capsule to chill down in order that it’s secure to deal with. The capsule reached temperatures as much as 2,760° Celsius whereas descending by the environment. The groups have been coaching for it for months and performed a number of simulations of the capsule restoration.

A clear room has additionally been arrange by NASA on the location to deal with the capsule.

As per official info, Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid which implies that it has quite a lot of carbon in it, maybe 5-10% by mass. It is anticipated that Scientists may see a mixture of rocky fragments in a spread of sizes – from a number of millimetres throughout all the way down to dust-sized. The materials will seem very darkish, virtually black, and really crumbly.

(Image Source – NASA/BBC)

The asteroid Bennu was found in 1999. It is a ‘rubble-pile asteroid’ which means that it’s a giant jumble of area rocks compressed collectively by gravity. It is believed that these rocks bought damaged off from a bigger physique, and are about 4.6 bn years outdated which suggests it’s roughly the identical time because the photo voltaic system, the Guardian reported.

The asteroid is orbiting the solar 81 million kilometres from Earth, and its floor is so unfastened that Osiris-Rex’s vacuum arm sank a foot or two into the asteroid. As a consequence, it sucked up way more pattern than anticipated, and the lid of the container was jammed.

Regarding the pattern, NASA stated, “Pieces of 4.6bn-year-old area rock ‘act as a time capsule from the earliest days of our solar system.”  The samples will be flown to a new lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the place the container will probably be opened.

Strikingly, the asteroid is understood to be wealthy in carbon-based substances and water-containing clay minerals. This means that liquid water was as soon as current on the bigger physique from which Bennu fashioned.

Researchers consider the samples collected may assist scientists perceive the elements that went into making planets together with our personal. It may additionally assist them perceive how these supplies got here collectively to create environments appropriate for all times.

It is believed that Bennu will seemingly even have quite a lot of water certain up in its minerals, maybe as a lot as 10% by mass. Similarly, akin to carbon chemistry, the supply of water by asteroid impacts may provide an evidence for the considerable presence of H2O on our planet.

After the discharge of the capsule, OSIRIS-REx resumed its tour of the photo voltaic system and is now headed in direction of a distinct asteroid named Apophis for an in depth research.