Pieces of 4.6bn-year-old space rock ‘act as a time capsule from the earliest days of our solar system’, Nasa says
Another hope is that by studying the samples from Bennu, scientists can compare their results against the data they obtained from instruments on board the spacecraft.
This ‘ground-truthing’ means they can then calibrate the latter, allowing them to more accurately explore differences in composition across the surface of Bennu. Remember – the samples that are heading from Earth only came from one small crater on the asteroid.
More Stories
Male mosquitoes to be genetically engineered to poison females with semen in Australian research
Bizarre Australian mole even more unusual than first thought, new research reveals
Memo to Trump: US telecoms is vulnerable to hackers. Please hang up and try again | John Naughton