NASA released the first close-up photos of the largest asteroid sample ever collected

• Last month, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spaceship dropped off a sample of dirt from the Bennu asteroid.
• Scientists have been studying it ever since.
• The black rocky regolith, or debris, contains carbon and evidence of water.

When NASA sent OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid Bennu in 2016, its scientists were hoping the asteroid's rocks and debris would give them information about the birth of the solar system and life on our planet.