NASA's first asteroid samples land on Earth after release from spacecraft

This image taken from video provided by NASA TV shows the capsule released by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft lying on the surface near the parachute after landing to Earth, Sunday Sept. 24 2023. Credit: NASA TV via APfetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.

"It's like 'Wow!'" said NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who was in Utah training for her own space capsule mission."This is just amazing. It can go from the movies, but this is reality." from the dawn of our solar system, the samples will help scientists better understand how Earth and life formed, providing"an extraordinary glimpse" of 4.5 billion years ago, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

British astronomer Daniel Brown, who was not involved in the mission, said he expects"great things" from NASA's largest sample return since the Apollo moon landings more than a half-century ago. With these asteroid samples,"we are edging closer to understanding its early chemical composition, the formation of water and the molecules life is based on," he added from Nottingham Trent University.

The mission's lead scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, will accompany the samples to Texas. The opening of the container in Houston will be"the real moment of truth," given the uncertainty over the amount inside, he said ahead of the landing. A helicopter delivers a space capsule carrying NASA's first asteroid samples on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, to a temporary clean room at Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the capsule following a seven-year journey to asteroid Bennu and back. Credit: AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool

This image taken from video provided by NASA TV shows the capsule released by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft lying on the surface after landing to Earth, Sunday Sept. 24 2023. Credit: NASA TV via AP

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