NASA lands on asteroid ‘witness’ of the formation of the Solar System and threatens Earth | Science and health

“Preliminary data shows that today’s sample collection mission went as planned,” the space agency wrote on Twitter.

The mission was considered a “complex engineering” operation.

Known since 1999, Bennu contains material from the early Solar System and may contain organic molecules that contain carbon, ingredients essential for life on Earth, as well as minerals that contain or form water. Researchers believe that celestial bodies like Bennu may have seeded the Earth with chemicals necessary for life.

Therefore, the compilation of your material is of great importance to the scientific community.

On Tuesday’s mission, a maneuver called TAG, an acronym for “Touch-and-Go”, was carried out, in which the ship quickly lands and takes off a few seconds apart, in this case, what is necessary to pick up with an arm mechanic a sample of at least 60 grams, the objective of the mission.

The mission is expected to bring back to Earth the largest extraterrestrial sample since the Apollo astronauts collected rocks from the Moon 50 years ago.

Osiris-Rex, which is comparable in size to a 15-passenger van, has been orbiting Bennu since 2018, 200 million miles (321 million kilometers) from Earth.

Bennu, on the other hand, is the height of the Empire State Building in New York, and has the potential to reach Earth in the 22nd century, around the year 2135, according to NASA, with a small probability of 1 in 2700. Possibly carries organic materials, carbonates, silicates and absorbed water that can be of great use for scientific research on Earth.

It is expected that, because of the distance, the samples will not reach Earth until 2023.