NASA shows off its first asteroid samples delivered by a spacecraft

Space Asteroid Sample Return This photo provided by NASA on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 shows the outside of the Osiris-Rex sample collector with material from asteroid Bennu at middle right. Scientists have found evidence of both carbon and water in initial analysis of this material. The bulk of the sample is located inside. (Erika Blumenfeld, Joseph Aebersold/NASA via AP
Space Asteroid Sample Return FILE - This artist's rendering made available by NASA on Sept. 6, 2016 depicts the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu with the Touch-And-Go Sample Arm Mechanism. On Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2023, NASA showed off the samples brought to Earth in September from the asteroid. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center via AP, File)
Space Asteroid Sample Return Recovery team members carry a capsule containing NASA's first asteroid samples to a temporary clean room at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023. On Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2023, NASA showed off the samples retrieved from the asteroid Bennu. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool, File)
Space Asteroid Sample Return FILE - This undated image provided by NASA shows the asteroid Bennu seen from the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. On Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2023, NASA showed off the samples delivered to Earth by a spacecraft in September 2023 from the asteroid. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/CSA/York/MDA via AP, File)
Space Asteroid Sample Return FILE - In this image from video released by NASA, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft touches the surface of asteroid Bennu on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. On Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2023, NASA showed off the samples brought to Earth in September from the asteroid. (NASA via AP, File)
Asteroid Samples This undated photo provided by NASA, shows a view inside a glass and stainless steel glovebox containing the Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return canister at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by a spacecraft, a jumble of black dust and rubble that's the most ever returned to Earth. (Dante Lauretta/NASA via AP)
Asteroid Samples In this undated combination of photos provided by NASA, asteroid particles coat the base of a canister at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, a jumble of black dust and rubble that's the most ever returned to Earth. (Dante Lauretta/NASA via AP)
Asteroid Samples In this photo provided by NASA, Mari Montoya, left, and Curtis Calva, right, use tools to collect asteroid particles from the base of a canister on Sept. 27, 2023, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, a jumble of black dust and rubble that's the most ever returned to Earth. (NASA via AP)
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This photo provided by NASA on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 shows the outside of the Osiris-Rex sample collector with material from asteroid Bennu at middle right. Scientists have found evidence of both carbon and water in initial analysis of this material. The bulk of the sample is located inside. (Erika Blumenfeld, Joseph Aebersold/NASA via AP(AP/Erika Blumenfeld, Joseph Aebersold)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA on Wednesday showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by a spacecraft — a jumble of black dust and rubble that’s the most ever returned to Earth.

Scientists anticipated getting a cupful but are still unsure how much was grabbed from the carbon-rich asteroid named Bennu, almost 60 million miles (97 million kilometers) away. That’s because the main sample chamber has yet to be opened, officials said during an event at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“It’s been going slow and meticulous, but the science is already starting,” said the mission’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected the samples three years ago from the surface of Bennu and then dropped them off sealed in a capsule during a flyby of Earth last month. The expected cupful was far more than the teaspoon or so that Japan brought back from a pair of missions.

Black dust and particles were scattered around the outside edge of the internal sample chamber, according to Lauretta. He said there’s still “a whole treasure chest of extraterrestrial material” to be studied. The samples are priceless, the preserved building blocks from the dawn of the solar system.

No one at Wednesday’s celebration at Johnson got to see any of the samples firsthand — just photos and video. The asteroid pieces were behind locked doors in a new lab at the space center, accessible only to scientists in protective gear.

Besides carbon, the asteroid rubble holds water in the form of water-bearing clay minerals, Lauretta and others pointed out.

“That is how we think water got to the Earth,” he said. “Minerals like we’re seeing from Bennu landed on Earth 4 billion years ago to 4.5 billion years ago, making our world habitable.”

That was one of the primary reasons for the $1 billion, seven-year mission: to help learn how the solar system — and Earth in particular — formed. “You can’t get more exciting than that,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Back in 2020, Lauretta and his team lost some of their haul when the lid on the sample container jammed a few days after the spacecraft collected the material. It vacuumed up so many pieces from Bennu that small rocks got lodged under the lid and prevented it from closing, sending pieces floating off into space.

That’s why scientists did not have a precise measurement of what was coming back; they estimated 250 grams, or about a cupful, ahead of the Sept. 24 landing in the Utah desert. They won’t have a good count until the container is opened, within two weeks or so.

Much of the material shown Wednesday was overflow from when the lid was stuck open, before everything could be sealed inside the return capsule. The larger visible rocks were under an inch (2.5 centimeters) in size.

“We have a bounty of sample on our hands already and we’re not even inside” the main sample container, said NASA astromaterials curator Francis McCubbin.

Once the samples are archived, the team will dole out particles to researchers around the world, while saving a fair amount for future analysis when better technology should be available.

NASA has another asteroid-chasing spacecraft on a Florida launch pad, ready to blast off later this week. The destination will be a rare asteroid made of metal named Psyche. No samples will be coming back.

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