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NASA probe poised to snatch ‘pristine rock’ samples from orbiting asteroid
- Wednesday | 21st October, 2020
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A NASA probe orbiting an asteroid over 100 million miles from Earth will make a perilous attempt on Tuesday to snatch a sample from the celestial body’s rocky surface to bring home the space agency’s first handful of pristine asteroid rocks. It has been in orbit around the asteroid for nearly two years preparing for the “touch and go” maneuver. That will allow the spacecraft to start its journey back toward Earth arriving in 20230 to return the first U.S. cache of pristine asteroid rocks. Scientists believe asteroids and comets crashing into early Earth may have delivered organic compounds and water that seeded the planet for life. Atomic-level analysis of samples from Bennu could provide key evidence to support that hypothesis.
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