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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/babinyar on 2023-10-04 18:29:44.
Scientists Discover ‘Best Problem’ As They Open Up Asteroid Sample
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/04/world/osiris-rex-bennu-asteroid-sample-canister-scn
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The mission team whisked away the canister the day after its arrival to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, which has a clean room specially built for careful analysis of the cosmic sample.
Asteroids are remnants from the formation of the solar system, offering insights into what those chaotic, early days were like as the planets formed and settled into place.
But near-Earth asteroids also pose a threat to our planet, so understanding their composition and orbits is key to unlocking the best ways to deflect space rocks on a collision course with Earth.
“We have all the microanalytical techniques that we can throw at this to really, really tear it apart, almost down to the atomic scale,” said Lindsay Keller, OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team member, in a statement.
Scientists believe that asteroids like Bennu might have delivered necessary elements such as water to Earth early in our planet’s formation — and studying the pristine sample could answer lingering questions about the origins of our solar system.
Meanwhile, the spacecraft that delivered the sample, now named OSIRIS-APEX, is on its way to study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, which will come close enough to Earth in 2029 to be seen by the naked eye.
The original article contains 676 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!