[imagesource: NASA]

In another landmark space adventure, NASA’s mission to collect dust and rocks from a large asteroid with the help of their Osiris-Rex probe was a success.

For close to two years, Osiris-Rex has been orbiting a large asteroid, named Bennu, more than 100 million miles away from Earth, waiting to spring into action.

On October 20, the probe touched down on Bennu, grabbing some rocks and dust from its surface to be returned to Earth for study, which could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe, and our place in it.

Check out Bennu’s journey through space before we get to ‘the little probe that could’:

FYI, Bennu is number two on NASA’s watchlist for asteroids that could impact Earth sometime in the future, with scientists predicting impact in the second half of the 22nd century.

Good times.

Back to the mission.

The short touch-and-go manoeuvre, reports CNET, between Osiris-Rex and Bennu was a delicate procedure, with the arm of the probe lowering at around 10 centimetres per second and collecting a sizeable sample within the first six seconds of making contact.

A breakdown of the events as they happened:

More from NASA:

Come on, NASA, that celebration could have used more spice.

The coordinated handshake following the Mars landing set the bar pretty high.

I have expectations now, and I demand satisfaction.

[source:cnet]