Explanation:
A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert in 2004
after being tracked by radar and chased by helicopters.
No space aliens were involved, however.
The saucer,
pictured above, was the Genesis sample return capsule,
part of a human-made robot
Genesis spaceship launched in 2001 by NASA
itself to study the Sun.
The unexpectedly
hard landing
at over 300 kilometers per hour occurred because the
parachutes did not open as planned.
The Genesis mission had been orbiting the
Sun collecting
solar wind particles that are
usually deflected away by
Earth's magnetic field.
Despite the crash landing, many return samples remained in good enough condition to analyze and research is
ongoing.
So far, discoveries include new details about the
composition of the
Sun and the
effects of the solar wind on unprotected material.
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