Samples from asteroid Bennu return to Earth

Less than a week left until the grand landing of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission capsule - according to plan will take place It's already September 24th. A small spacecraft will return to Earth for the first time soil samples from the asteroid Bennu, also called the “doomsday asteroid.”

The landing will mark the end of OSIRIS-REx's seven-year mission, which began with launch in 2016 and collection of samples from Bennu in October 2020.

On September 24, the spacecraft will pass through the Earth's atmosphere, protected by a heat shield, and reach a speed of more than 43,000 km/h before deploying the drogue and main chutes to slow to a more manageable speed of 16 km/h

Bennu is called a “doomsday asteroid” due to its enormous size (525 meters), unclear nature and proximity to Earth. The OSIRIS-REx probe, which took soil samples and made a few photos, might not have taken off from it at all. The surface of the celestial body turned out to be very loose. Because of this, Benna was almost swallowed up by the comic apparatus. NASA suggests that such soft asteroids pose a much greater danger to the Earth than hard ones.