In late September, scientists at NASA and around the world eagerly awaited the arrival of the OSIRIS-REx capsule containing a sample of the asteroid Bennu. The capsule safely landed on Earth on Sunday 24 September in a Utah desert containing a sample of the asteroid Bennu – categorised as one of the two “most hazardous known asteroids”. When the capsule was first opened, it sparked audible gasps from scientists. Since its arrival, NASA has kept its cards fairly close to its chest but a new blog post from the space agency suggests that progress is going slowly for the “best reason” as there is more sample material than they had anticipated. They explained: “The abundance of material found when the science canister lid was removed earlier this week has meant that the process of disassembling the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head – which holds the bulk of material from the asteroid – is off to a methodical start.” The OSIRIS-REx’s mission took 7 years to complete, with the sample currently being analysed by NASA taken three years ago before making its way down to Earth. Imagery from the moment the sample was taken confirmed to scientists that there would be asteroid material where they found it, but the quantity of dark particles were far more than they had anticipated. “The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” said deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead Christopher Snead of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “There’s a lot of abundant material outside the TAGSAM head that’s interesting in its own right. It’s really spectacular to have all that material there.” In the coming weeks, experts will continue to work through the particles and begin the complex process of carefully disassembling the TAGSAM to reach the bulk of the Bennu sample inside. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Students at the Oregon State University were warned to “avoid all robots” following a bomb threat prank involving automated food delivery machines on campus. The threat was made by a student on Tuesday via social media, causing university staff to issue the urgent warning. “Bomb Threat in Starship food delivery robots. Do not open robots. Avoid all robots until further notice. Public Safety is responding,” the institute wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. The university later provided several updates on the unfolding situation, saying that the robots had been isolated in a “safe location” before being inspected by a technician. Students were advised to “remain vigilant for suspicious activity”. The emergency was declared over just before 2pm local time with “normal activities” resuming. “All robots have been inspected and cleared. They will be back in service by 4pm today,” the university later wrote online. Starship, the company that designs the robots, said that despite the student’s subsequent admission that the bomb threat had been “a joke”, it had suspended the service while investigations were ongoing. In its own statement, the company wrote: “A student at Oregon State University sent a bomb threat, via social media, that involved Starship’s robots on the campus. “While the student has subsequently stated this is a joke and a prank, Starship suspended the service. “Safety is of the utmost importance to Starship and we are cooperating with law enforcement and the university during this investigation.” Read More University of Michigan slithers toward history with massive acquisition of jarred snake specimens Trump boasts that he ‘killed’ Tom Emmer’s speaker bid ‘Bandaid on an open chest wound’: Democrats mock latest speaker chaos

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