The OSIRIS-REx capsule plunged toward Earth at more than 27,000 miles per hour before landing in Utah.

NASA (falling capsule); NASA/Keegan Barber (capsule)

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In September, a strange container parachuted into the Utah desert. Scientists couldn’t wait to open the capsule. What was inside? 

“There’s a whole treasure chest of extraterrestrial material,” explains scientist Dante Lauretta. 

The capsule contained pebbles and dust from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid named Bennu. The samples are the first that NASA, the U.S. space agency, has ever collected from an asteroid.

NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2016. It reached Bennu two years later. The spacecraft spent another two years taking photos and searching for the best spot to gather samples. 

In 2020, the spacecraft’s robotic arm carefully scooped up the samples. A few months later, OSIRIS-REx began the long trip back toward Earth. It dropped off the sealed capsule as it zoomed past our planet. 

A Lot to Learn

Early tests show that the samples contain water. Scientists think asteroids similar to Bennu may have crashed into Earth billions of years ago, bringing water. Lauretta says this is likely why Earth has oceans and lakes. 

NASA officials plan to share the samples from the space rock with more than 200 scientists around the world. They’ll also keep some for future scientists in the U.S. to study.

Rock Stars

Here’s a quick guide to some different types of space rocks.

Detlev van Ravenswaay/Science Source

Asteroids orbit the sun and can be hundreds of miles wide.

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Meteoroids are often smaller pieces of asteroids. As they enter Earth’s atmosphere, we see flashes of light called meteors, or shooting stars.

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Meteorites are pieces of meteoroids that have reached Earth’s surface.

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