NASA's asteroid sample mission enabled scientists to study an "artificial meteor" and analyze meteoroid entry characteristics.

NASA's asteroid sample mission provided a rare opportunity for global scientists to study an "artificial meteor" as Earth receives constant meteoroid bombardment. Meteoroids, often as small as grains of sand, are challenging to predict and study. However, this mission allowed researchers to analyze similar objects entering the atmosphere, like sample return capsules (SRCs), which share meteoroid entry characteristics.