The Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles out.
Nasa’s first asteroid samples taken from deep space have parachuted into the desert in the US state of Utah.
“It’s like ‘Wow!’” said Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams, who happened to be in Utah training for her own space capsule mission. “This is just amazing. It can go from the movies, but this is reality.” The pebbles and dust delivered on Sunday represent the biggest haul from beyond the moon. Preserved building blocks from the dawn of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, the samples will help scientists better understand how Earth and life formed.
Nasa’s recovery effort in Utah included helicopters as well as a temporary clean room set up at the Defence Department’s Utah Test and Training Range. The samples will be flown on Monday morning to a new lab at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston. The building already houses moon rocks gathered by the Apollo astronauts more than a half-century ago.
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