OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid-sample canister simply creaked open for the primary time in additional than seven years.
Scientists at NASA’s Johnson House Middle (JSC) in Houston lifted the canister’s outer lid on Tuesday (Sept. 26), two days after OSIRIS-REx‘s return capsule landed within the desert of northern Utah.
“Scientists gasped because the lid was lifted,” NASA’s Astromaterials Analysis and Exploration Science (ARES) division, which is predicated at JSC, wrote Tuesday in a submit on X (previously Twitter).
The operation revealed “darkish powder and sand-sized particles on the within of the lid and base,” they added.
Associated: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx lands samples of asteroid Bennu on Earth after historic 4-billion-mile journey
That powder as soon as resided on the floor of an asteroid named Bennu, the main focus of the OSIRIS-REx mission.
OSIRIS-REx launched towards the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu in September 2016, arrived in December 2018 and snagged a hefty pattern from the area rock in October 2020 utilizing its Contact-and-Go Pattern Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM.
The asteroid materials landed in Utah inside OSIRIS-REx’s return capsule on Sunday (Sept. 24), then made its technique to Houston by airplane on Monday (Sept. 25). It will likely be saved and curated at JSC, the place the staff will oversee its distribution to scientists world wide.
Researchers will examine the pattern for many years to return, in search of insights concerning the the photo voltaic system’s formation and early evolution, in addition to the position that carbon-rich asteroids like Bennu might have performed in seeding Earth with the constructing blocks of life.
However that work is not prepared to start; the ARES staff hasn’t even accessed the principle asteroid pattern but. Doing so requires disassembly of the TAGSAM equipment, an intricate operation that may take appreciable time.
“There’s a very excessive degree of focus from the staff — the pattern will likely be revealed with an incredible quantity of precision to accommodate delicate {hardware} elimination in order to not come into contact with the pattern inside,” JSC officers wrote in a weblog submit on Tuesday.
And talking of reveals: NASA will unveil the Bennu pattern on Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), throughout a webcast occasion which you can watch right here on House.com.
