Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times.
Sept. 24 was a big day for NASA, when an orange-and-white capsule containing pieces of an asteroid landed on Earth, charred from its ultrahigh-speed fall through our atmosphere. The asteroid in question, named Bennu, is thought to have been roaming space since the early days of our solar system — meaning these samples could reveal to us what our cosmic neighborhood looked like way before we got here.
According to a NASA blog post, the curation team that's been processing the samples says it has removed and collected 70.3 grams of Bennu material from the capsule so far — and it hasn't even actually been opened yet. Those 70.3 grams come from just the area on the outside of the sample collector's head.
Part of the reason there is so much of the Bennu sample within this capsule actually has to do with the touch-and-go process itself. When the OSIRIS-REx sample collection mechanism dipped toward the rock to gather a few asteroid pieces, scientists watching were surprised to see Bennu wasn't a nice, solid object like you might expect.
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NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission surpasses goal for collection of asteroid samplesThe curation team processing NASA's asteroid Bennu sample has removed and collected 2.48 ounces (70.3 grams) of rocks and dust from the sampler hardware—surpassing the agency's goal of bringing at least 60 grams to Earth.
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Space rocks and asteroid dust are pricey, but these aren't the most expensive materials used in scienceAfter a journey of seven years and nearly 4 billion miles, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed gently in the Utah desert on the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, with a precious payload. The spacecraft brought back a sample from the asteroid Bennu.
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NASA's Ingenuity helicopter aces longest Mars flight in 18 monthsMichael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, 'Out There,' was published on Nov. 13, 2018.
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