The leftovers became asteroids and comets, and scientists believe Bennu still harbors the basic organic molecules that were present in the early solar solar system, the stuff that may have helped seed life. When the solar system formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, chunks of rock and ice collided as they circled the sun like the balls on a billiard table, eventually building up planets. Credit: NASA/GSFC/UA/Mike Nolan-Arecibo Observatory/Bob Gaskell-Planetary Science Institute “We are seeking to return samples of a carbonaceous asteroid that we believe dates back to the formation of our solar system.” Simulated cratering and topography are overlaid on radar imagery of asteroid Bennu. “First and foremost, we are an origins mission,” Lauretta said. OSIRIS-REx stands for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, a $1 billion mission designed to bring back to Earth at least 2 ounces (60 grams), and potentially more than a pound, of rock specimens from Bennu. But the asteroid will get brighter as the spacecraft makes its approach, finally filling OSIRIS-REx’s camera view in late November and early December. OSIRIS-REx has worked flawlessly since leaving Earth in 2016, officials said, successfully making a brief return to its home planet last year for a gravity assist flyby that re-routed its orbit around the sun toward Bennu.īennu is currently about as bright as a 13th magnitude star, far too dim to be visible with the naked eye - if someone was riding along with OSIRIS-REx. The spacecraft was also where it was supposed to be, and pointing in the (right) direction.” “First of all, the asteroid is right where we thought it was, so it’s there and it’s waiting for us. “There was a lot of good news in this image for us,” Lauretta told reporters in a conference call Friday. 3, when it will begin a series of close passes over the asteroid to map the object for the first time, before entering orbit around Bennu on Dec. 17 showed OSIRIS-REx was right on track to arrive at Bennu on Dec. “I know Bennu is only a point of light here, but many of us have been working for years and years and years to get his image down,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission from the University of Arizona. 17 from a distance of around 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers), revealing Bennu as a faint dot moving against a field of background stars. The probe aimed its long-range imager toward the asteroid and captured a series of pictures Aug. Nearly two years after its launch, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has commenced its final approach to asteroid Bennu. The New Horizons spacecraft, on an extended mission after flying by Pluto in July 2015, has its sights set on a distant, frozen world nicknamed Ultima Thule nearly 4 billion miles (more than 6 billion kilometers) from Earth. Launched in September 2016, OSIRIS-REx is approaching asteroid Bennu, a dark, carbon-rich world measuring approximately 1,640 feet (500 meters) in diameter. The imagery will improve in the coming months, before each mission’s target finally becomes fully resolved late this year. Two NASA spacecraft - the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and the New Horizons probe at the edge of the solar system - have captured their first looks at their targets as they approach a pair of primordial relics for the first time. Bennu is visible as a moving object against the stars in the constellation Serpens.Ĭredits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona This cropped set of five images was obtained by the Pol圜am camera over the course of an hour for calibration purposes and in order to assist the mission’s navigation team with optical navigation efforts. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km), or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon.
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