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A capsule carrying asteroid material captured in space three years ago has arrived safely on Earth.
一艘载有三年前从太空捕获的小行星物质的太空舱安全抵达地球。
The American space agency NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the capsule Sunday during a pass by Earth.
美国航空航天局的奥西里斯-REx探测器周日在经过地球时释放了这个太空舱。
A parachute floated the capsule down to the surface as it landed in a restricted military area in the Utah desert.
降落伞携带太空舱飘落在犹他州沙漠的一个军事禁区的地面上。
NASA officials said the capsule arrived as planned with no observable damage.
美国航空航天局官员表示，太空舱按计划到达，没有明显的损坏。
Within two hours of landing, it was already inside a temporary clean room belonging to the U.S. Defense Department.
在着陆后的两个小时内，它已经进入了美国国防部的一个临时无尘室。
The sealed container holding the samples was being flown to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
装有样本的密封容器被空运到美国航空航天局位于得克萨斯州休斯敦的约翰逊航天中心。
It will then be closely examined in a new, specially designed laboratory.
然后，科学家将会在一个特别设计的新实验室中进行仔细检查。
Dante Lauretta, with the University of Arizona, is the project's lead scientist.
亚利桑那大学的但丁·劳雷塔是该项目的首席科学家。
He told reporters he got so emotional after the successful sample recovery that he "broke into tears."
他告诉记者，在成功回收样本后，他激动得“流下了眼泪”。
Lauretta said his team cannot wait to start examining the material.
劳雷塔说，他的团队迫不及待地要开始检查这些材料。
"For me, the real science is just beginning."
“对我来说，真正的科学才刚刚开始。”
Lauretta will stay with the samples all the way to Texas.
劳蕾塔将会和样本一起去得克萨斯州。
NASA's planetary science director, Lori Glaze, said she thinks the samples will be a "treasure" for scientific examination "for years and years to come."
美国航空航天局的行星科学主任洛里·格拉兹说，她认为这些样本将会成为“未来多年”科学研究的“宝藏”。
Osiris-Rex began its mission in 2016.
奥西里斯-REx探测器于2016年开始执行任务。
It reached Bennu, about 320 million kilometers from Earth, two years later.
两年后，它到达了距离地球约3.2亿公里的贝努。
The spacecraft completed its asteroid sample operation in October 2020.
该航天器于2020年10月完成了小行星采样。
Its robotic arm touched the asteroid Bennu for a few seconds to produce dust and rock samples for collection.
它的机械臂与小行星贝努接触了几秒钟，以产生尘埃和岩石样本供其收集。
At the time, scientists said Osiris-Rex had captured much more asteroid material than they had expected.
当时，科学家表示，奥西里斯-REx探测器捕获的小行星物质比他们预期的要多得多。
NASA reported in 2020 that some material had spilled out and floated away during the collection process.
美国航空航天局在2020年报告称，在收集过程中，一些物质泄漏并漂离。
Japan is the only other country to bring back asteroid samples from space.
日本是唯一一个从太空带回小行星样本的国家。
Those collection efforts resulted in much less material being captured.
这些收集工作的结果是捕获的材料要少得多。
The rock and dust samples that arrived Sunday represent the largest space samples reaching Earth besides material returned by NASA in the past from the moon.
除了美国航空航天局过去从月球带回的物质外，周日抵达地球的岩石和尘埃样本是最大的太空样本。
Engineers have estimated the capsule holds about 250 grams of material from Bennu.
工程师们估计，这个太空舱容纳了大约250克来自贝努的材料。
But it will likely take a few weeks to get an exact measurement, said NASA curator Nicole Lunning.
但美国航空航天局负责人尼科尔·伦宁表示，可能需要几周的时间才能得到准确的测量结果。
NASA said it plans to discuss details about the captured samples next month.
美国航空航天局表示，其计划在下个月讨论有关捕获样本的细节。
Osiris-Rex is already on its way to another asteroid, Apophis, which it is expected to reach in 2029.
奥西里斯-REx探测器已经在前往另一颗小行星阿波菲斯的途中，预计将于2029年到达。
Scientists say the asteroid samples contain remains from the building blocks of our early solar system.
科学家表示，这些小行星样本中含有早期太阳系组成成分的残留物。
Researchers say the samples' present-day chemistry and mineral makeup are mostly unchanged since forming about 4.5 billion years ago.
研究人员表示，自大约45亿年前形成以来，这些样本目前的化学和矿物组成基本没有发生变化。
This means the samples likely hold valuable data about the early development of rocky planets such as Earth.
这意味着这些样本可能含有有关地球等岩石行星早期发展的有价值的数据。
I'm Bryan Lynn.
布莱恩·林恩为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
