Scientists are working through NASA’s OSIRIS-REx program to bring pieces of the asteroid Bennu to earth this month.
The samples of the asteroid are set to land on September 24 in the Utah desert.
They’ll be sent off to a lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Michelle Thompson, the associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences in Purdue’s College of Science, will be one of the fix investigators to study the samples.
While scientists are not certain on how much material is being brought back, they say there could be more than 100 grams of material packed into the collection canister.
That could be enough to keep hundreds of scientists busy for the entirety of their careers.
