NASA, SAEDNEWS, Oct. 21: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe successfully touched down on the ancient asteroid Bennu to collect a sample which will hopefully shed some light on the early universe and, possibly,the origins of life itself. The OSIRIS-REx – which stands for: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer – spacecraft briefly touched down on the asteroid located some 200 million miles (321 million kilometers) from Earth on Tuesday. At approximately 1:50 pm EDT, the probe descended 805 meters (2641 feet) from orbit, in a delicate process which took four hours, and extended its 3.35-meter sampling arm and touched the space rock for about 15 seconds.
