Scientists say the encounter between American spacecraft Osiris-Rex and an asteroid named Bennu could yield vital information on the evolution of the solar system.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) craft succeeded in landing briefly on the asteroid to collect a small quantity of rubble for analysis back on Earth.
The Guardian reported that the craft had to dodge boulders the size of buildings in order to complete the mission.
The BBC said radio signals from 330 million km away confirmed that the probe made contact with the 500m-wide Bennu, but that scientists would have to wait for further data from Osiris-Rex to confirm that material was actually picked up.
The aim was to acquire at least 60g of material.
The report said that because Bennu was a very primitive space object, scientists believed its surface grit and dust could hold fascinating clues about the chemistry that brought the Sun and the planets into being more than 4.5 billion years ago.
‘The team is exuberant; emotions are high; everyone is really proud,” said principal investigator Dante Lauretta from the University of Arizona, Tucson.
‘This was the key milestone of this mission. Now it’s a few days to figure out how much of this amazing sample we got that we’ve been thinking about for decades,” added Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa’s associate administrator for science.