Credit: NASA/James Vaughan
NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex probe departed the asteroid Bennu bound for Earth on May 10. Ahead of it is a 1.4-billion-mile (2.3-billion-kilometer) journey that will culminate in the Utah desert in September 2023. Inside the capsule are samples taken from Bennu in 2020—so many that the collection shovel overflowed. Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid of the type that may have contributed greatly to Earth’s ability to sustain life, and the mission scientists are counting the days until they can get a look at the samples.