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HOUSTON - The public will get a first look at the asteroid sample that was collected from Bennu and brought back to Earth on the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft last month.
Scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will hold a virtual reveal at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
SUGGESTED: NASA's Bennu asteroid sample return mission lands on earth sunday
NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert on Sept. 24 to cap a seven-year journey.
In a flyby of Earth, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the mothership set off after another asteroid.
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NASA unveiling asteroid sample
NASA will publicly unveil the United States' first asteroid sample on Wednesday.
To everyone’s relief, the capsule was intact and not breached, keeping its 4.5 billion-year-old samples free of contamination. Within two hours of touchdown, the capsule was inside a temporary clean room at the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range, hoisted there by helicopter.
"Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx team on a picture-perfect mission – the first American asteroid sample return in history – which will deepen our understanding of the origin of our solar system and its formation. Not to mention, Bennu is a potentially hazardous asteroid, and what we learn from the sample will help us better understand the types of asteroids that could come our way," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a news release after the landing. "With OSIRIS-REx, Psyche launch in a couple of weeks, DART’s one year anniversary, and Lucy’s first asteroid approach in November, Asteroid Autumn is in full swing. These missions prove once again that NASA does big things. Things that inspire us and unite us. Things that show nothing is beyond our reach when we work together."
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return lid opening at Building 31 Astromaterials Curation Facility. Photo credit: NASA
SUGGESTED: Asteroids samples at Johnson Space Center for testing
NASA said the Bennu sample – an estimated 8.8 ounces – would be sent to the Johnson Space Center in the sealed canister, where scientists would disassemble it and inventory the rocks and dust.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.