NASA has completed the tallying of asteroid samples collected by a spacecraft last autumn, and the amount surpassed their initial goal by two times.

On Thursday, authorities announced that the Osiris-Rex satellite successfully retrieved 121.6 grams (4.29 ounces) of dust and pebbles from the asteroid Bennu. This amount is equivalent to slightly more than half a cup and is the largest collection of cosmic material ever obtained from a location outside of the moon.

NASA had a delay in opening the sample container due to fasteners being stuck.

The NASA space center in Houston has a unique laboratory for storing the first ever collected carbon-rich samples from an asteroid.

In September of last year, Osiris-Rex brought back the samples it had collected from the asteroid three years prior. The mission, which cost $1 billion, could have collected more samples, but some rocks got stuck in the container lid during the grab and some samples escaped.

The spacecraft is currently en route to another celestial body, but it will only perform a flyby and not collect any samples.

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Source: wral.com