America spent a billion dollars to get cosmic dust

The US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) announced that they would launch an unmanned spacecraft to space to get material from meteorites.

NASA 's AFP announces that the spacecraft will be launched in 2016 to reach a pre-selected meteor during a four-year journey. It did not land on the meteorite but only close to the surface. After that, the airship's arm will reach out and take some material - including dust and organic matter with a mass of more than two kilograms. The spacecraft will return to Earth by 2023. The project cost about $ 1 billion.

Illustration of American spacecraft taking dust from meteorites with the machine arm.
Photo: AP.

Scientists believe that meteorites are remnants of the solar system formation about 4.5 billion years ago. Studying them can help people better understand the early stage of the solar system.

Michael Drake, a scientist at the University of Arizona , said that living things can exist on meteorites.

Last year Japan became the first country to get dust from the universe. The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft brought dust from a meteorite about 300 million kilometers from the earth - about twice the distance from the globe to the sun. Hayabusa's flight lasted 7 years.