News Watch as NASA reveals asteroid samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission

[News]

NASA curation team members, along with Lockheed Martin recovery specialists, look on after the successful removal of the sample return canister lid. | Image: NASA / Robert Markowitz

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission was launched in September 2016, and seven years later, its capsule landed in the Utah desert for NASA to collect and analyze its first-ever samples collected from an asteroid. Now, NASA scientists are ready to show off what it collected and share what they found out during their first tests.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson presented the first pictures of the samples, saying that tests show “samples that contain abundant water in the form of hydrated clay materials” within the “biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth.”

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The audacious mission flew the spacecraft to a small, near-Earth asteroid named Bennu and attempted something that hadn’t been done before by orbiting the asteroid, getting close enough to scrape up some material and collect it, and then returning to Earth with the sample.

Follow along here for all of the updates about the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return.

• NASA finds building blocks for life in the Bennu asteroid sample
• Here’s the final sample material from the Bennu asteroid.
• Here’s what NASA brought back from the Bennu asteroid.
• NASA has freed the Bennu asteroid sample after three months of trying.
• NASA just launched its next mission to an asteroid.
• NASA shows off the first images and data from its new asteroid samples.
• NASA collected a sample from an asteroid for the first time — here’s why it matters
• The OSIRIS-REx capsule is in the bag.
• NASA is now recovering the capsule containing the Bennu asteroid sample.
• OSIRIS-REx is safe for approach.
• The OSIRIS-REx capsule has been located.
• The OSIRIS-REx capsule has touched down.
• The parachute is deployed.
• What’s next for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft?
• Here’s what NASA is actually doing right now with OSIRIS-REx.
• NASA’s asteroid-punching spacecraft begins its trek back home
• NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe successfully stores small sample of asteroid rocks in its belly
• NASA’s OSIRIS-REx was so good at grabbing asteroid rocks that they’re overflowing
• Stunning images show NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft stirring up rocks on an asteroid
• NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully taps an asteroid in attempt to grab a sample
• Watch as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission attempts to grab a sample from an asteroid
• A NASA spacecraft is poised to snag the largest sample of rocks from an asteroid ever
• How engineers are operating deep-space probes, Martian rovers, and satellites from their homes
• NASA picks the asteroid crater its spacecraft will steal rocks from next summer
• NASA spacecraft snaps detailed asteroid picture from closest orbit yet
• NASA spacecraft discovers its target asteroid is spewing material and is much more rugged than expected
• NASA’s latest asteroid target had a wet and wild history
• After a two-year journey, a NASA spacecraft arrives at its target asteroid
• NASA’s asteroid-sampling spacecraft spies its target for the first time
• A NASA spacecraft is about to slingshot around Earth to meet up with an asteroid
• NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now on its way to asteroid Bennu
• NASA is about to launch a spacecraft to an asteroid to learn more about life on Earth