Osiris Rex sucked about 60 grams of gravel and dust from the surface of the asteroid potato-like Benno in October. This happened approximately 333 million kilometers from Earth. Asteroid samples are collected in a container aboard the probe.

Scientists want to study grains under their microscopes on Earth to get a better picture of the origin of our solar system, and they may find clues to the origin of life on Earth. This is the first time that Americans have gathered material from an asteroid. She led the way in Japan with the Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 expeditions.

The Osiris-Rex engines pushed the probe away from the asteroid on Monday evening. To reach Earth, it will orbit the sun twice and cover a distance of 2.3 billion kilometers. On September 24, 2023, the capsule must land cautiously in the desert of the US state of Utah, about 62 miles west of Salt Lake City.

OSIRIS-REx was launched in 2016. The mission has cost approximately $ 1 billion.