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Watch what it's like to sample an asteroid. On 20 October 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft positioned itself above asteroid Bennu and used its sampling system to grab material for return to Earth. Rather than being a solid chunk of rock, Bennu turned out to have the cohesion of a ball pit.

These sequence of images, taken over about three hours prior to, during, and immediately after the sampling event, show how the spacecraft attitude changed to accommodate sampling. Note especially the enormous cone of ejected material moving over the asteroid as the spacecraft backed away.