NASA finally opened its prized asteroid canister, and you can look inside

Inside Building 31 at Johnson Space Center, NASA scientists have opened the metal canister holding rocks the agency plucked off a distant asteroid.

NASA has spent months trying to release two “stubborn” fasteners on the canister’s lid, which was no easy feat. The asteroid receptacle, after parachuting down to Earth from outer space, has been (understandably) isolated inside a specially-designed glovebox, with limited tools and access.

Now, the lid is open, and the agency has snapped a picture of the bulk of what it captured from asteroid Bennu, a 1,600-foot-wide asteroid composed of boulders and rubble. It’s the prize of the agency’s first ever mission to bring pristine pieces of an asteroid back to our planet, an endeavor called OSIRIS-REx (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer).

Read more at: https://mashable.com

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