Natural History Museum prepares to study pristine material gathered in Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission

A teaspoon’s worth of dark dust and granules scooped from an asteroid 200m miles from Earth has arrived at the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are preparing to unlock its secrets.

Researchers at the museum received 100mg of the pristine material, which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system, after Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission stopped at asteroid Bennu in 2020 and returned samples to Earth in September.

  • Digestive_BiscuitEnglish
    2·
    7 months ago

    I wouldn’t be surprised it somebody did snort a bit. They could be the only person ever to have snorted an asteroid which hasn’t naturally entered the atmosphere but was collected by an automated robot.