NASA Spacecraft Delivering Biggest Sample Yet From an Asteroid

September 21st, 4:00 AM EDT

MGN via NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona

(NEWsnet/AP) — Planet Earth is about to receive a special delivery — the biggest sample yet from an asteroid.

A NASA spacecraft will fly by Earth on Sunday and drop off what is expected to be at least a cup of rubble it grabbed from asteroid Bennu, concluding a seven-year quest.

The sample capsule will parachute into the Utah desert, as its mothership, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, zooms off for an encounter with another asteroid.

Scientists anticipate getting about a half-pound of pebbles and dust.

The landing concludes a 4 billion-mile journey highlighted by the rendezvous with Bennu.

Osiris-Rex launched in 2016. It arrived at Bennu in 2018 and spent the next two years flying near the asteroid and scouting the best place to grab samples.

Three years ago, the spacecraft reached out with an 11-foot stick-vacuum, momentarily touching the asteroid’s surface and sucking up dust and pebbles.

Bennu is believed to be a remnant of a much larger asteroid that collided with another space rock. It’s about one-third of a mile wide, roughly the height of the Empire State Building, and its black rugged surface is packed with boulders.