First NASA Asteroid Sample Landed in Utah; Check Out All the Details!
Another mission for NASA was a complete and total success! A space capsule landed on Earth after a parachute touchdown in the Utah desert on Sunday (September 24). The capsule was carrying a sample of hard material that was taken from the outer layer of an asteroid three years ago. The cosmic feature in question sped toward our planet on its way to a catastrophic tumble into Earth’s atmosphere. Back then, it stirred quite a buzz among scientists who believed the asteroid could be dangerous. NASA officials stated at a press conference on Friday (September 23) that the weather forecasts were good, and the automated probe OSIRIS-REx was on track to launch the sample-return spacecraft for ultimate drop as scheduled, with no more alterations to its flight path required.
Continue reading down below for all the details.
On Sunday (September 24), a NASA space capsule that was carrying the most significant soil sample that has ever been pulled out from the outer layer of an asteroid successfully parachuted the craft into the desert of Utah. The space sample was successfully delivered to the researchers at the end of the expedition. That’s quite a motivational accomplishment.
The capsule in the shape of a gumdrop was dropped to the ground by the robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx when the mothership approached within 107,826 kilometers of our planet. Then, it landed in a designated landing zone located west of Salt Lake City on the massive Utah Test and Training Range, which is operated by the United States military.
A carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid known as 101955 Bennu was the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission, which was a NASA asteroid investigation and sample-return journey that explored and retrieved samples from 101955 Bennu. The spacecraft was first put into orbit around Bennu back on December 3, 2018, after having been launched on September 8, 2016, and having flown past Earth on September 22, 2017. Because Bennu represents a “time capsule” from when the Solar System was first forming, it was decided to make it the focus of the investigation. More data should be available soon so that we’ll understand better the asteroid!
Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.
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