NASA's OSIRIS-Rex captures snap of ancient asteroid, headed closer for a sample
6 years, 7 months ago

NASA's OSIRIS-Rex captures snap of ancient asteroid, headed closer for a sample

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The mission aims to bring back the biggest sample of asteroid ever, roughly 60 grams. Two years after launching from Florida, a NASA spacecraft is closing in on an ancient asteroid Bennu, for a sample of space dust that could reveal clues to the start of life in the solar system. “This is significant in that we are now in the vicinity of the asteroid, closer than we have ever been even during the close approaches of the asteroid to the Earth.” Bennu was chosen from the some 500,000 asteroids in the solar system because it orbits close to Earth’s path around the Sun, it is the right size for scientific study, and is one of the oldest asteroids known to NASA. The OSIRIS-REx mission is not the first to ever visit an asteroid and attempt a sample return – Japan has done it before and Europe has managed to land on a comet. But it is the first asteroid-sample-return mission for NASA, and it aims to bring back the biggest sample ever, on the order of 60 grams.

History of this topic

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