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Images of NASA-Damaged Asteroid Coming Our Way as OSIRIS Completes Flyby

Somewhere in the vastness of space, there’s the only asteroid in the universe that we know of to have been damaged by humans. It’s called Bennu, and the tool used to harm it is the OSIRIS-Rex.
OSIRIS-Rex over asteroid Bennu 1 photo
Photo: NASA/Youtube
OSIRIS-Rex stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, and it is the complicated name NASA gave to a small spacecraft purposefully sent into space to find Bennu, steal a piece of it, and head back home with it for our scientists to study.

The spacecraft did its job wonderfully. It reached the asteroid, dipped a sampling head into the surface of the floating rock, fired a couple of nitrogen gas canisters to stir things up, collected the samples, and finally ignited its thrusters to move away from the surface. Pair this aggressive activity with the weak gravity on Bennu, and we get some serious damage, or at least a significant disturbance, as NASA calls it.

OSIRIS completed its primary mission some time ago, but NASA took advantage of the fact the ship will not have to begin its journey home until May 10 to make another flyby of Bennu and assess the damage. The maneuver was completed on April 7, and now the team here on Earth will have to wait a few more days (until April 13 at the earliest) until the images captured reach Earth.

And they should reveal quite a sight, as OSIRIS' instruments recorded for 5.9 hours and from an altitude of just 2.1 miles (3.5 km), the closest it’s been since the actual touchdown. Whatever the recordings will show, the images will help scientists better understand the “nature of the surface and subsurface materials,” as Dr. Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, says.

It would take OSIRIS until September 2023 to make its way back home, and when it gets here, it will unload its precious cargo: 2 ounces (60 grams) of asteroid material.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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