OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully touched Asteroid Bennu
A NASA spacecraft named Osiris-Rex has successfully touched the surface of asteroid Bennu to collect some samples of the asteroid. This samples will help scientists to perfectly analyzed the puzzle of how our solar system formed.
Japan already did this kind of mission but USA did it for the very first time.
"I can't believe we actually pulled this off,” said lead scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona. "The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do."
Asteroid Bennu is more than 200 million miles away from earth now and the spacecraft Osiris-Rex sent back the signals for the confirmation that it touched the surface of Bennu.
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But it will take a week before scientists know how much samples were grabbed and whether another try will be needed. If the spacecraft successfully collected some samples of asteroid Bennu then it will return with the samples to Earth by 2023.
As the Bennu's gravity was too low, it was very difficult for landing there. The asteroid is just 510 metres across. As a result, the spacecraft had to reach out with its 3.4-meter robot arm and attempt to grab at least 60 grams of Bennu.
Read also-Osiris-Rex of NASA Ready to Land on Asteroid Bennu
The spacecraft was programmed to shoot out pressurized nitrogen gas to stir up the surface, then suck up any loose pebbles or dust. Contact was expected to last only 5 seconds to 10 seconds, with the spacecraft quickly backing away.
Scientists want between 2 ounces (60 grams) and 4 pounds (2 kilograms) of Bennu's black, crumbly, carbon-rich material.
“That will be another big day for us. But this is absolutely the major event of the mission right now,” NASA scientist Lucy Lim said.
NASA is planning to launch three more asteroid missions in the next two years.
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