NASA is about to send a spacecraft to steal rocks from an asteroid

When it comes to studying samples of otherworldly material, scientists on Earth are in a bit of a bind. We've brought rocks back from the moon, and our Mars rovers take samples, process them, and then send the data back to us, but it's pretty difficult to gather rocks from other celestial bodies. NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is about to attempt that remarkable feat not by traveling to a nearby planet, but by hitching a ride on a rock that's actually traveling to us instead. Later this week, the hig...