2023-09-26 10:23:48
Par Tristan Vey
Published 1 hour ago, Updated 1 hour ago
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IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES – The Osiris-Rex probe released its capsule on Sunday 100,000 km from Earth. It landed on Sunday in the Utah desert before being transferred Monday evening to the NASA center in Houston.
Seven years after takeoff, the Osiris-Rex mission has just ended in apotheosis. The sample return capsule taken from the asteroid Bennu landed in the Utah desert on Sunday morning, before being transferred to NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Monday evening.
Although the engineers have not yet opened the container housing the samples, the latter are relatively confident. They believe they have recovered 250 grams of this precious extraterrestrial material, witness to the first moments of the Solar System. His analysis will likely span decades. Scientists hope to learn a lot of information, particularly about how water and the first chemical ingredients needed for life arrived on Earth.
In the coming days, specialists from NASA’s curation center, who have experience in managing lunar samples, will sort the grains and small pebbles contained in the capsule. These will be carefully sorted and cataloged, one by one, before being distributed to the analysis teams, including a French laboratory from the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur.
On the way to Apophis
NASA plans to reveal the first descriptions and images of the capsule’s contents during a press conference on October 11. The agency should nevertheless communicate soon on the quantity of material collected. Important information for scientists because it will determine to what extent certain destructive analyzes can be carried out, without endangering the resource.
To date, only two Japanese missions have brought back asteroid samples. The Hayabusa 1 and 2 probes nevertheless collected much more modest quantities. Some micrometric grains from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010 and 5 grams from the asteroid Ryugu in 2020.
Note that the Osiris probe continued its route after releasing its capsule 100,000 km from Earth. It is now heading to the asteroid Apophis, which it should reach in 2029, for a new mission, called Osiris-Apex.
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