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Eleanor K. Sansom, Research Associate, Curtin University

7 years, billions of kilometres, a handful of dust: NASA just brought back the largest-ever asteroid sample

NASA

After a journey of billions of kilometres, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has culminated in a small black capsule blazing through the sky before touching down in the Utah desert.

Inside is likely to be the largest ever sample of dust and rock returned from an asteroid. Extracted and brought back with great technical ingenuity from an asteroid called Bennu, scientists will now study in search of clues about the origins of the Solar System and life itself.

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