This is Science Friday, and I'm Dessa, writer and musician,

filling in for Ira this week.

Later in the hour, the neuroscience of sight

and will dive into some jellyfish news.

But first, about a week ago, space nerds got the care package of a lifetime,

a sample from Bennu, an asteroid currently around 200 million miles from Earth.

This mission, called Osiris Rex,

marks the first time the U.S. has collected a sample from an asteroid

and then safely brought that precious cargo back down to Earth.

Scientists hope that it'll unveil some of the mysteries of our universe,

like how the sun and planets came to exist, and even how life began.

Here, with more Science News of the Week, is Sophie Bushwick,

Technology Editor at Scientific American, based in New York.

Sophie, welcome back to Science Friday.

Thanks for having me.

Okay, so Sophie, help me calibrate my enthusiasm.

How stoked should I be?

So first out, this is just like incredibly awesome.

Because Bennu is 4.5 billion years old.

It dates back to the beginning of the solar system.

So by harvesting a sample from it,

researchers can learn a ton about the early days of the solar system.

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