Samples taken from the asteroid Bennu have arrived on Earth

 In an unprecedented achievement, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, after its seven-year-long interstellar journey, has successfully returned to Earth with intact rock and dust samples from the near-Earth asteroid, Bennu. 

This marks the first instance of NASA accomplishing the feat of collecting and safely landing asteroid samples on our planet. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, was propelled into space in 2016. It commenced its orbit around Bennu in 2018, collected the valuable sample in 2020 and embarked on its return journey to Earth in May 2021.

Upon its arrival, recovery teams promptly retrieved the spacecraft's sample capsule. A helicopter was employed to safely transport the sample, encased in a cargo net, to a temporary clean room situated close to the landing site. This is where the curation team, under the supervision of OSIRIS-REx curation manager Nicole Lunning, will carry out a nitrogen purging process to prevent contamination of the sample by Earth's atmosphere. Any larger fragments of the capsule will also be meticulously removed.

The sample capsule, comparable in size to a large truck tire, along with its main parachute, was spotted post-landing in the Utah desert. Plans for the following days include preparing the sample container for airlift on a C-17 aircraft to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The scientists eagerly anticipate uncovering the lid to catch the first glimpse of the asteroid sample on Tuesday. 

This successful mission marks a significant milestone in space exploration and research, shedding light on the origins and composition of near-Earth asteroids like Bennu.