Osiris Rex Bennu

The initial curation process for NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample of asteroid Bennu is moving slower than anticipated, but for the best reason the sample runneth over. The abundance of material found when the science canister lid was removed earlier this week has meant that the process of disassembling the TAGSAM Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition

Lee esta nota de prensa en espaol aqu.. Studies of rock and dust from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer spacecraft have revealed molecules that, on our planet, are key to life, as well as a history of saltwater that could have served as the quotbrothquot for these compounds to

OSIRIS-REx in Launch Configuration. OSIRIS-REx a was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission that visited and collected samples from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid. 14 The material, returned in September 2023, is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, its initial stages of planet formation, and the source

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. It returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, to drop off a capsule with material from asteroid Bennu. After dropping off the sample capsule through Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and sent on a new mission to explore asteroid Apophis in 2029.

A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Sample material from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right. Scientists have found evidence of both carbon and water in initial analysis of this material. The bulk of the sample is located inside.

OSIRIS-REx TAGs Surface of Asteroid Bennu Asteroid Bennu. Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid classified as a type B based on its reflectance spectrum. Despite its relatively small diameter of about 500 meters, its surface is believed to preserve material dating back approximately 4.6 billion years to the solar system's formation.

quotThe strategy for planning with OSIRIS-REx was to take Itokawa and all of the observations of asteroid Bennu that we had made of it before,quot Kevin Walsh, a planetary scientist at Southwest

NASA OSIRIS-REx sample collection event at Asteroid Bennu saw the spacecraft plunge its arm into the surface. Find out how deep it went. Credit NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Elon Musk's quotNo

When OSIRIS-REx begins to orbit Bennu at the end of this month, it will come close to approximately three quarters of a mile 1.25 kilometers to its surface. In February 2019, the spacecraft begins efforts to globally map Bennu to determine the best site for sample collection. After the collection site is selected, the spacecraft will briefly

What is OSIRIS-REx doing now? After dropping off the sample collection capsule with the material from Bennu, OSIRIS-REx diverted away from Earth. Its eventual goal is the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis. On April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass closer to Earth than some geostationary satellites, at a distance of 30,600 kilometers 19,000