NASA’s first asteroid samples streaking toward Earth after release from spacecraft
Washington, Sep 24: A space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples streaked toward a touchdown in the Utah desert on Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.Flying by Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the capsule from 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) out. The capsule was expected to parachute down four hours later onto the military’s Utah Test and Training Range. Scientists anticipated getting at least a cup of rubble from the carbon-rich asteroid known as Bennu. About a teaspoon was returned by Japan, the only other country to bring back asteroid samples.
The pristine samples are believed to be the leftover building blocks from the dawn of our solar system and will help scientists better understand how Earth and life formed. Osiris-Rex rocketed away on the $1 billion mission in 2016. It reached Bennu two years later and, using a long stick vacuum, grabbed dust and pebbles from the small roundish space rock in 2020. By the time it returned on Sunday, the spacecraft had travelled 4 billion miles (6.2 billion kilometers). (AP)
Tropical birds visit Lake Michigan beach
in a first for the northern state
PORT WASHINGTON, Sep 24: Five flamingos that showed up in Wisconsin to wade along a Lake Michigan beach attracted a big crowd of onlookers eager to see the unusual visitors venturing far from their usual tropical setting.
The American flamingos spotted Friday in Port Washington, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, marked the first sighting of the species in Wisconsin state history, said Mark Korducki, a member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The birds stood quietly 25 feet (7.6 meters) off Lake Michigan’s western shoreline as waves lapped against their thin legs. Three were adults, identifiable by their pink plumage, and two were juveniles clad in gray. (AP)
