planetary defense
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Bennu Asteroid Samples Expected to ‘Fundamentally’ Shift Our Perspective on Cosmic Life
If NASA ever manages to pry open the sample canister, that is.
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Returned Asteroid Samples Are an ‘Astrobiologist’s Dream,’ NASA Says
The OSIRIS-REx canister still contains the bulk of the asteroid sample inside, but pieces of the ancient space rock found on the outside have already shown evidence of organic matter embedded within tiny bits of debris. On Wednesday, NASA revealed the first look at samples returned from asteroid Bennu through its OSIRIS-REx mission. Scientists performed…
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A Look Back at the Best Spaceflight Images From September
The U.S. summer season has ended, but spaceflight continues to be hot, with new views of our Moon and Jupiter’s moon Io, the much-anticipated return of an astronaut and an asteroid sample, and important new rocket engine tests, to name just a few of the many moments that captured our attention in September. Let’s take…
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Scientists Spot Black Dust and Debris on Canister Containing Asteroid Sample
Following a nearly three-year journey through space, the canister containing samples from asteroid Bennu has finally been opened. The OSIRIS-REx mission team removed the initial lid of the sample canister, which was placed inside a glovebox to keep out contaminants, on Tuesday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the space agency announced. Once the…