Scientists don’t often have the time to get all their equipment set up to study incoming meteors from space. Instead, they can study capsules from space missions as ‘artificial meteors.’
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Articles on Sample return mission
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Studying the sample could help answer how water arrived on Earth and how life started.
If the building blocks of life were present at the time that Earth was born, this could mean life is common in the universe.
Scientists hope samples of asteroid Ryugu may reveal traces of the chemical ingredients that formed life on Earth.
Some people are nervous about China’s growing capabilities when it comes to space exploration.
OSIRIS-REx will touch down on asteroid Bennu, collect a sample of the dust and begin its journey back to Earth, where scientists will study it, hoping to learn secrets of the solar system’s origin.
This summer, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is taking the next giant leap in our search for signs of life beyond Earth.
It is a pretty spectacular achievement to not only rendezvous with an asteroid as it is whizzing around the Sun but also collect a sample. Here’s what the researchers learned.
Top contributors
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Professor of Planetary Science, University of Leicester
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Senior R&D Scientist, Physics, Sandia National Laboratories
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Professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Science, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
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Space Projects Manager & Mission Design Lead, University of Portsmouth
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Associate Professor of Planetary Science, Purdue University
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Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Oklahoma State University
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Associate Professor of Planetary Science, Western Washington University
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Professor of Practice for Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Senior Vice President for Research & Innovation, University of Arizona
