![]() ![]() 15 was estimated to be 15 meters across.Įnormous burst in air, leveling large area, equivalent to a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb. Tunguska impact that hit a remote part of Russia in 1908 was one of these. Gigantic planet-wide destruction, mass extinction, enormous crater. The Chicxulub impactor that killed the dinosaurs was one of these.The delivery will give scientists a rare opportunity to study asteroid material using all the advanced equipment ground-based laboratories must offer.īut scientists don’t need to get their hands on that sample to dig into spacecraft observations for two and a half years. In May, the spacecraft and its precious payload said goodbye to the asteroid and returned to Earth, where OSIRIS-REx will deposit the capsule sample in September 2023. The spacecraft’s visit to the asteroid reached its climax in October 2020, when OSIRIS-REx snatched a sample of Bennu to stash away. Using this data, the team behind the new research was able to improve their understanding of the location and movement of space rocks for about two and a half years. ![]() Throughout that time, the spacecraft has been constantly recording its position in relation to Earth and the asteroid. space.“We’ve been able to go into orbit, we’ve been able to leave orbit, and we’ve been able to get into a variety of shooting angles.” “The spacecraft’s trajectory was really amazing - I compared it to a hummingbird,” said Dante Loretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator and author of the new research, during the press conference. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this series of images of asteroid Bennu on April 14, 2020, during the first rehearsal of the mission's sample collection event. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)In its first practice run, OSIRIS-REx went through two of the four maneuvers it would perform during a real asteroid-sampling attempt: the orbit departure burn and the "checkpoint" burn. Video: OSIRIS-REx gets really close to asteroid Bennu in rehearsalRelated: How NASA's asteroid sample return mission will work (infographic)This artist's concept shows the trajectory and configuration of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during the checkpoint rehearsal on April 14, 2020. On Tuesday (April 14), during what NASA calls a "checkpoint rehearsal," OSIRIS-REx got closer to Bennu's surface than ever before while practicing the sample collection process. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which is getting ready to scoop a sample of asteroid Bennu, has successfully completed a partial dress rehearsal for its historic trip to the asteroid's surface. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft aces asteroid-sampling dress rehearsal Studying the asteroid in space up close and when the asteroid sample is dropped on Earth in 2023 will help scientists learn how to deflect a potentially hazardous asteroid like it. 11, 2020 photo shows the sampling arm of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during a rehearsal for an approach to the "Nightingale" sample site on the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Kerri Donaldson Hanna said.ĭonaldson Hanna is one of two University of Central Florida faculty serving on the NASA mission, including UCF planetary scientist Humberto Campins. “This mission has almost been like clockwork,” spacecraft science team member and UCF Associate Prof. asteroid sample attempt but it will be a few days before we know how much it picked up. – A NASA spacecraft briefly smooched the surface of a potentially hazardous asteroid more than 200 million miles away on Tuesday successfully conducting the first U.S. NASA spacecraft successfully ‘kisses’ asteroid to bring back sample to Earth ![]()
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