A spacecraft from NASA has successfully returned to Earth with samples from an asteroid that date back to the formation of our solar system.

September 24, 2023 Benjamin Hughes

A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments

A potential source of information about the origins of the solar system collided with the Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday and successfully landed in Utah with the help of a parachute, concluding a thrilling journey spanning seven years and four billion miles.

At 10:42 a.m. EDT, the 110-pound capsule containing half a pound of rocks and soil from the asteroid Bennu, which was collected in 2020, was released from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. It reached the top of the atmosphere, 82 miles above, four hours later at a speed of 27,000 mph.

A team of rescuers, led by Dante Lauretta, the Principal Investigator for OSIRIS-REx, examines the capsule containing the sample from the asteroid after it landed in the Utah desert. NASA/Keegan Barber

In the following two minutes, the capsule dramatically slowed down due to intense atmospheric friction. Its heat shield experienced temperatures higher than 5,000 degrees and a braking force 32 times stronger than the force of gravity as it descended towards its landing location at the Utah Test and Training Range in western Salt Lake City.

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William Harwood

Bill Harwood has been a dedicated journalist covering the American space program since 1984. He started as the bureau chief for United Press International in Cape Canaveral and is currently a consultant for CBS News. Throughout his career, he has reported on 129 space shuttle missions, all interplanetary flights since Voyager 2’s exploration of Neptune, and numerous commercial and military launches. Harwood is stationed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is also an avid amateur astronomer. He is also the co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”

Source: cbsnews.com