HOUSTON – Items of historic asteroid Bennu collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft have arrived in Houston after surviving the descent to Earth and touchdown in Utah over the weekend.
The arrival at Johnson Area Heart in Houston marks the success of a seven-year mission for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Useful resource Identification, and Safety–Regolith Explorer.
On Sunday, the spacecraft launched a capsule containing about 9 ounces of rocks, mud and grime collected from the asteroid Bennu in 2020. About 4 hours later, the pattern landed contained in the Protection Division’s Utah Take a look at and Coaching Vary.
After touring as much as 27,000 mph and blasting via Earth’s environment, the pattern nonetheless had extra journey to finish.
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The capsule was safely collected by the OSIRIS-REx workforce and brought to a brief clear room on the U.S. Military Dugway Proving Floor about 80 miles from Salt Lake Metropolis.
A transport container with the canister of asteroid Bennu pattern is strapped down onboard a U.S. Air Power C-17 plane. Credit score: NASA/ Molly Wasser.
On Monday, the asteroid bits made the final leg of the journey onboard a U.S. Air Power C-17 plane, touchdown at Ellington Discipline earlier than being taken to Johnson Area Heart, the place a specialised clear room for Bennu was ready.
The OSIRIS-REx science workforce will use glove packing containers to deal with the pattern canister containing the top of the robotic arm used to gather grime, rocks and mud from Bennu’s floor. After eradicating the asteroid pattern from the TAGSAM, or Contact-and-Go Pattern Acquisition Mechanism, every bit of {hardware} can be cataloged to protect each little bit of asteroid mud discovered exterior of it.
The OSIRIS-REx science workforce, led by principal investigator Dante Lauretta with the College of Arizona, will analyze the traditional asteroid mud to know the general pattern’s chemical, mineralogical and bodily make-up.
Bennu is believed to have damaged off from a bigger asteroid greater than 4.5 billion years in the past and is a fossil of our photo voltaic system. Scientists suppose it seemingly accommodates natural molecules from inside 10 million years of our photo voltaic system’s formation with clues to planet formation and find out how to shield Earth from doubtlessly hazardous asteroids like Bennu.
On Oct. 11, NASA will share its preliminary findings from the asteroid pattern.
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Ultimately, greater than 200 scientists worldwide will examine the asteroid pattern. A part of the pattern can be given to the Japanese Area Exploration Company (JAXA) in alternate for a few of the asteroid samples collected from the Japanese Hayabusa missions.
This set of photographs reveals the asteroid Bennu rotating for one full revolution. Over a 4-hour and 11-minute interval on Nov. 2, the PolyCam digicam on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft acquired a 2.5-millisecond picture for each 10 levels of the asteroid’s rotation. (Picture: NASA/Goddard/College of Arizona) (NASA/Goddard/College of Arizona)
In the meantime, NASA’s asteroid-sampling spacecraft is on a brand new mission known as OSIRIS-APEX. In 2029, when asteroid Apophis flies by Earth, the spacecraft will use its thrusters to maneuver round materials on the asteroid to assist scientists find out about its floor properties.
