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.
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