If the maneuver is successful, a box with dust and rocks collected in 2020 on the planet Bennu will return to Earth on Sunday. The mission of the American Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will allow scientists to find out what substances the planet is made of, but it is also a glimpse into the deep past from the beginnings of the Solar System, which has been preserved in the vacuum of space.
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7:29 September 24, 2023 Share on Facebook
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After releasing the OSIRIS-REx module, it fires its thrusters to avoid a collision with Earth (animation) | Source: NASA
The capsule will contain approximately a quarter of a kilogram of material taken from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. A few years ago, the OSIRIS-REx probe sucked up matter from it and headed back through space towards Earth.
The sample in the box launched by the probe will enter the atmosphere on Sunday at a dizzying speed of up to 44,500 kilometers per hour, and the box, which will slow down to 18 kilometers per hour with the help of parachutes, will reach the surface of the Earth in 13 minutes.
It will land at about 16:55 CET in a designated area in the desert of the US state of Utah.
If all goes according to plan, this will be the first time the United States has managed to collect material on an alien planet and bring it back for research.
The OSIRIS-REx probe launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2016. Three years ago, it performed a spectacular maneuver lasting several hours, during which it descended from the orbit of the asteroid Bennu and collected research material from the surface of the planet using a robotic arm.
As the box and its contents hurtle toward Earth, the OSIRIS-REx probe will restart its engines to fly past Earth and embark on a new mission to the planet Apophis. According to calculations, it will fly around the Earth at a distance of 32 thousand kilometers in 2029. This mission will be called OSIRIS-APEX.
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2023-09-24 05:29:00
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