Space

Photo of 'Flying Saucer' That Crash-Landed 14 Years Ago in a Utah Desert Gets New Life

At a Glance

The downed "flying saucer" was a sample return capsule from NASA's Genesis Mission.
Genesis was launched in 2001 to study the sun and collect samples of solar wind particles.
Many of the samples the return capsule carried were able to be analyzed despite the crash.

What NASA is calling a "flying saucer" crash-landed in the Utah desert 14 years ago, and the photo is now getting new life after being reposted by the space agency.

Now, we know what you're thinking when you read "flying saucer," and no, it wasn't a downed alien spacecraft. The crashed device was from the human-made robot Genesis spaceship launched in 2001 by NASA.

The Genesis mission orbited the sun while collecting solar wind particles that are typically deflected away by Earth's magnetic field. What came crashing down to Earth was Genesis's sample return capsule.

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A NASA photo shows the remains of the Genesis return sample capsule, a human-made robot that was built to study the sun. The capsule's parachute failed to open, causing it to crash in a Utah desert back in 2004.
(USAF 388th Range Sqd/NASA)

As the return capsule was making its way back to Earth, its parachutes failed to open as planned, causing the unexpectedly hard landing, NASA said. The capsule smashed to Earth at about 185 mph.

Despite coming down to Earth much more violently than expected, many of the samples the return capsule carried remained in good enough condition to study.

Genesis's discoveries have given NASA new details about the composition of the sun and how the abundance of types of elements differ across our solar system. Its "results have provided intriguing clues into details of how the sun and planets formed billions of years ago," NASA said.

So you can put away your tinfoil hats for now, because this flying saucer had no little green beings crawling out of it.