NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) revealed that the capsule of the spacecraft that returned to Earth last year contained over 120 grams of sand and other samples taken from the asteroid. This far exceeds Japan's Hayabusa2, which also brought back samples from an asteroid, and researchers from various countries, including Japan, are planning to analyze them in the future.
A capsule containing sand and other samples collected by NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft after landing on the asteroid Bennu, which orbits between Earth and Mars, returned to Earth last year and is located in Utah, USA. It was recovered from the desert.
NASA has been carefully opening the samples in a special clean room, and on the 15th, it was revealed that the total amount of samples recovered was 121.6 grams.
This far exceeds the approximately 5.4 grams that Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned from the asteroid Ryugu in 2020.
Previous analyzes have shown that the sample contains water and carbon, and it is expected that it will provide valuable information about the origin of life on Earth and the formation of the solar system. will proceed with the analysis.