A little bit of Bennu

[John]

A 250g sample of the asteroid Bennu is due to return to Earth this weekend:

Osiris-Rex: Asteroid Bennu 'is a journey back to our origins' - BBC News

 

[Mr Spock]

It's a pile of rubble!

Does anyone else think that guy Ashley looks like Tom from MySpace?

[Zermelo]

Around 30 minutes to go

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2023/9/24/asteroid-samples-return-to-earth-with-osiris-rex/

 

[Mr Spock]

The capsule is now on its way to Dugway military base.

A little scare earlier as the parachute opened at 6,000m instead of 1,500m, but all is well. Probably mixing up feet and metres again 

[Zermelo]

11 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

The capsule is now on its way to Dugway military base.

A little scare earlier as the parachute opened at 6,000m instead of 1,500m, but all is well. Probably mixing up feet and metres again 

Better that way than leaving it too late.

[Swoop1]

When you consider the distances trvelled and the time scales, they landed the capsule very clos to a road. Chapeau!

[John]

NASA unveiled some initial findings about some of the material recovered from Bennu this afternoon:

Osiris-Rex: Nasa reveals first look at 'beautiful' asteroid sample - BBC News

It's early days but some of their findings on composition seem similar to that of Carbonaceous Chondrite meteorites, notably the recent Winscombe Meteorite.

Much more to learn from this material I'm sure 🙂

[MartianHill]

An amazing mission, looking forward to seeing the findings……