Asteroid Bennu Sample delivery today NASA OSIRIS REx craft 7 year journey 250 gram piece of asteroid more details

Asteroids are said to be dangerous for the Earth. NASA is studying them because they can reveal the secret of the process of formation of planets. NASA says that their structure is similar to that of planets, hence it is very important to study them. Now in this series, a space capsule of NASA is bringing a sample of asteroid. This sample was taken from the surface of an asteroid three years ago. This spacecraft is to land in the desert of Utah. Let us know important things about it.

NASA is continuously busy gathering information about asteroids. Now NASA’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx has released a space capsule from space which is bringing a sample of asteroid Bennu. Its landing was scheduled for today, i.e. Sunday. It will land through parachute. NASA said that the capsule will hit the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere which is coming at a speed 35 times faster than the speed of sound. It will reach the earth’s surface within 13 minutes after hitting the atmospheric layer.

NASA has said that this spacecraft has returned after a journey of 7 years. OSIRIS-REx is a joint mission of NASA and the University of Arizona that has brought the world’s third asteroid sample. It has been said that this will be the largest sample of asteroid ever to be studied. Before this, Japan’s Space Agency has completed 2 similar missions for asteroids in the last 13 years.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has picked up samples from an asteroid named Bennu. This asteroid was discovered in 1999. This asteroid passes near the Earth every 6 years. Scientists have said about it that the probability of it hitting the Earth in the 22nd century is 1 in 2700. Which is quite less. This is a 1600 feet asteroid. Scientists say that it can reveal the secret of the process of formation of Earth and other planets.

The OSIRIS-REx mission was launched in 2016. It reached asteroid Bennu in 2018. It continued to revolve around the asteroid for two years. After that, on October 20, 2020, it took a sample of the asteroid. The weight of the sample is said to be 250 grams. This is more than the two samples that came before this. In 2010, a sample was brought from asteroid Itokawa. After that, in 2020, a sample was brought from asteroid Ryugu. The latest sample is heavier than both of them.