An American spacecraft took off from an asteroid returning to Earth

An American spacecraft took off from an asteroid returning to Earth

A US space probe has begun collecting material from an asteroid on its return journey to Earth. NASA’s Osirix-Rex probe, released in October last year Landing on asteroid Bennu, it has absorbed an estimated 200 to 400 grams of debris, and if all goes well, it will return to Earth in September 2023.

Scientists hope to learn more about the origin of the solar system, and with it the Earth, with the pebbles collected. Pellets could tell more about how planets originated and where life on Earth comes from. Bennu is estimated to be about 490 meters long and about 4.5 billion years old.

It is only after landing on the ground that it becomes clear how much of the granules have been absorbed. To reach Earth, the probe will orbit the sun twice and travel a distance of 2.3 billion kilometers. The asteroid is now about 287 million km from Earth.

The mission, which will cost more than $ 800 million, is the first in a series of multiple NASA asteroid missions. It’s the first time Americans have wanted to bring material from an asteroid to Earth, but Japan has already preceded them. That was about one Much smaller amount Material.

How do you get rid of an asteroid? A task manager explained how things went in the past year:

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