After a nearly seven-year mission, NASA scientists said a sample of space rocks, gathered from an asteroid 200 million miles away, has made it to Earth. The NASA mission ended Sunday, Sept. 24, as the sample from the asteroid, Bennu, landed safely in a Utah desert.
According to a NASA release, the capsule containing the sample landed in a “targeted area of the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City.” From there the sample was picked up by helicopter and moved to a “clean room” and connected to nitrogen to keep the sample pure for scientific analysis.
Bennu, an asteroid roughly the size of the Empire State Building, has been tracked by scientists since its discovery in 1999. Since then, the asteroid has had a couple of close calls with Earth. According to a study, Bennu came close to Earth in 1999, 2005, and 2011. Scientists believe that the asteroid could collide with Earth in Sept. 2182.
Scientists at NASA said that the sample collected from Bennu will give them a look into life in the solar system and how planets like Earth may have been formed. The sample contains rocks and dirt that are some 4.5 billion years old. The asteroid, older than Earth, has been traveling the universe, unscathed, for eons.
While scientists have studied space rocks that have fallen to Earth in the past, this marks the first time scientists can look at a sample that has not been contaminated by our planet’s atmosphere.
Researchers at NASA said they will first look at the sample of space rocks on Monday, Sept. 25, or Tuesday, Sept. 26.
