In September 2023, a NASA mission successfully brought samples of an asteroid down to Earth in a sealed capsule. Analysis of these samples may reveal information about the origins of the universe.
Mining an asteroid probably won’t look exactly like mining does on Earth, but some principles will stay the same.
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Upcoming NASA missions will help scientists understand the composition of asteroids – which could inform companies one day hoping to commercially mine asteroids.
An illustration of an asteroid orbiting through space.
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Scientists have been searching Earth’s surface for superheavy elements too difficult to make in the lab, but now, many are looking to the skies instead.
Meteorites can get pricey, but they’re not the most expensive material.
AP Photo/Thibault Camus
Some space rocks you can get for free – if you know how to identify them. Rarer materials cost more, and the asteroid sample NASA just brought back has a high price tag.
Controlled experiments are impossible in astronomy, as are direct measurements of physical properties of objects outside our solar system. So how do astronomers know so much about them?
A digital composite of a meteor shower speeding towards Earth.
Adastra
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has delivered pieces of asteroid Bennu, which scientists hope will offer a window into the early era of the Solar System billions of years ago.
Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, a sea-dwelling lizard from the age of the dinosaurs, with strange, ridged teeth unlike those of any known reptile.