NASA Spacecraft Delivering Biggest Sample Yet From An Asteroid
FILE - This illustration provided by NASA depicts the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at the asteroid Bennu. On Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft will fly by Earth and drop off what is expected to be at least a cupful of rubble it grabbed from the asteroid Bennu, closing out a seven-year quest. (Conceptual Image Lab/Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA via AP, File)
(Associated Press) – Planet Earth is about to receive the biggest sample yet from an asteroid.
A NASA spacecraft will fly by Earth on Sunday and drop off pebbles and dust collected from the asteroid Bennu to close out a seven-year journey.
The capsule holding the sample will parachute into the Utah desert.
Its mothership, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, will then zoom off for an encounter with another asteroid.
Scientists are anticipating at least a cupful of rubble from Bennu.
That’s considerably more than the teaspoon of asteroid material brought back by Japan.
No other country has returned asteroid samples.
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