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Lucinda King, Space Projects Manager & Mission Design Lead, University of Portsmouth

Osiris-Rex: Nasa reveals evidence of water and carbon in sample delivered to Earth from an asteroid

The "coal-like" material from Bennu. Nasa / Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebers

On September 24 this year, a Nasa capsule parachuted down to Earth carrying a precious cache of material grabbed from an asteroid. The space agency has now revealed images and a preliminary analysis of the space rocks it found after lifting the lid off that capsule.

The mission to the asteroid was called Osiris-Rex, and in 2020, it collected a sample of material from the asteroid Bennu. Afterwards, it travelled back to Earth and released the capsule containing the rocks into our atmosphere three weeks ago.

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