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WASHINGTON: The US space probe OSIRIS-REx on Tuesday left the orbit of the asteroid Bennu, from which it assembled dust samples last year, to start its long journey back to home.
NASA in a statement said, “In 2016, @NASASolarSystem #OSIRISREx’s historic journey to a near-Earth asteroid began as it lifted off on a ULA #AtlasV. Nearly 5 years later, we wish the spacecraft a safe journey home as it departs #Bennu returning the 1st asteroid sample.”
In 2016, @NASASolarSystem #OSIRISREx’s historic journey to a near-Earth asteroid began as it lifted off on a ULA #AtlasV. Nearly 5 years later, we wish the spacecraft a safe journey home as it departs #Bennu returning the 1st asteroid sample. #ToBennuandBack #ExplorationEnabled pic.twitter.com/MARWy3gm8w
— ULA (@ulalaunch) May 10, 2021
Head of the mission, Dante Lauretta said on NASA´s video broadcast of the event, “Osiris-Rex is now moving away over 600 miles an hour from Bennu, on its way home.”
According to NASA, the spacecraft´s thrusters were involved without incident for seven minutes to put the inquiry on the correct path home, a journey of 1.4 billion miles (2.3 billion kiometers).
It is carrying more than 60 grams of dust and fragments from the asteroid, the largest sample collected by NASA since the Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions.
Mission navigation has received confirmation of burn cutoff. #OSIRISREx is headed home with a souvenir of rocks and dusts from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid! #ToBennuAndBack pic.twitter.com/BmaK1dkPDB
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) May 10, 2021
The analysis should benefit scientists better understand the creation of the solar system and the development of Earth as a habitable sphere.
To achieve this objective, the US space agency launched a high-risk procedure in October 2020: the probe came into contact with the asteroid for a few seconds, and a blast of compressed nitrogen was emanated to increase the dust sample which was then captured.
The surprise for NASA was the probe´s arm sank several centimeters into the surface of the asteroid, showing the scientists that “the surfaces of these rubble pile asteroids are very loosely consolidated,” said Lauretta.
The agency said the samples will then be shifted to NASA´s Johnson Space Center in Houston, however, 75 % will be kept intact to be studied by future generations, who will have advanced technologies that have not yet been created.
