Incredible moment Nasa probe lands on ‘doomsday asteroid’ Bennu to collect biggest Space sample since Apollo
NASA's OSIRIS-REX spacecraft briefly touched down on the asteroid Bennu on Tuesday evening, tagging the surface as part of a collection mission that's been 16 years in the making.
It is hoped that the any dirt collected will help with future research into our solar system – including how to potentially prevent an asteroid crashing into Earth.
The spacecraft made contact with the surface of Bennu shortly after 11pm GMT.
It is hoped that NASA will know by Saturday whether the extraction has been successful.
Any materials collected could help unlock secrets into how our solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago.
Last December, scientists selected the sample site known as Nightingale – a fairly smooth patch on what is an asteroid strewn with boulders.
"In a special collection of six papers published today in the journals Science and Science Advances, scientists on the OSIRIS-REx mission present new findings on asteroid Bennu’s surface material, geological characteristics, and dynamic history.
"They also suspect that the delivered sample of Bennu may be unlike anything we have in the meteorite collection on Earth."
"These findings indicate that hydrated minerals and organic material will likely be present in the collected sample.
"This organic matter may contain carbon in a form often found in biology or in compounds associated with biology.
"Scientists are planning detailed experiments on these organic molecules and expect that the returned sample will help answer complex questions about the origins of water and life on Earth."
There is a theory that life on Earth started because of an asteroid impact bringing water and the right organic molecules.
There's also slight concern that an asteroid like Bennu could end lives on Earth.
Bennu is a possible security risk for our planet as there's a 1 in 2,700 chance it could collide with us in the 2100s.
This may be a slim chance but it makes studying the asteroid even more important.
Bright 'veins' on the asteroid's boulders are also being used to suggest Bennu formed when a larger watery asteroid was smashed into and broken up.
The water could have created the veins and left behind the patterns we can still see today.
Bennu – the key facts
Here's what you need to know
- 101955 Bennu is a large asteroid that was first discovered on September 11, 1999
- It's official designated as a "potentially hazardous object", because it could one day hit Earth
- Space scientists say it has a 1-in-2,700 change of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2199
- It's named after the Bennu, an Ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the Sun
- The asteroid has an approximate diameter of 1,614 feet
- Bennu is the target of the ongoing Osiris-Rex mission, which is designed to return samples from the asteroid to Earth in 2023
- The Osiris-Rex spacecraft arrived at Bennu on December 3, 2018 – following a two-year journey
- It will map out Bennu's surface and orbit the asteroid to calculate its mass
- An asteroid of Bennu's size can be expected to hit Earth approximately once every 100,000 to 130,000 years
- Bennu will make a close approach (460,000 miles) to Earth on September 23, 2060
In other news, Elon Musk says his Starship rocket could fly to Mars in just over three years.
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