{"id":102517,"date":"2020-10-31T18:32:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T15:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/watch-a-nasa-spacecraft-touch-down-on-asteroid-bennu\/"},"modified":"2020-10-31T18:32:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T15:32:15","slug":"watch-a-nasa-spacecraft-touch-down-on-asteroid-bennu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watch-a-nasa-spacecraft-touch-down-on-asteroid-bennu\/","title":{"rendered":"#Watch a NASA spacecraft touch down on asteroid Bennu"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Watch a NASA spacecraft touch down on asteroid Bennu<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/source><\/source><\/picture>
\nThe rock-strewn asteroid Bennu.
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\nImage: nasa\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Touchdown.<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier in October, NASA successfully collected rocky samples<\/a> from asteroid Bennu, a relatively small, well-preserved space rock some 200 million miles from Earth. On Friday, NASA released footage of the spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, app<\/a>roaching and briefly touching down on the rubbly Bennu. The events, seen in the space agency’s tweet below, show OSIRIS-REx carefully descending to Bennu’s rock-strewn surface.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft collected over 60 grams<\/a>, or about two ounces, of fine-grained material during the quick <\/a>touchdown, which lasted under 16 seconds<\/a>. To planetary scientists, this asteroidal stuff is invaluable: Bennu hasn’t changed much since the formation of our solar system (4.5 billion years ago<\/em>), so the samples provide a glimpse into our past, and how our planets formed.<\/p>\n

“They are like time capsules from the beginning of our solar system,” Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a> and a scientist working on the OSIRIS-REx mission, told Mashable. “This is like sampling the original ingredients for making planets.”<\/p>\n

(The first ambitious mission to carry asteroid samples back to Earth, Japan’s Hayabusa mission<\/a>, returned in 2010.)<\/p>\n

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Now that the sample is sealed up in the Sample Return Capsule, I can finally share this video from TAG!<\/p>\n

This is the view from one of my navigation cameras\u2026 pretty intense, huh? #ToBennuAndBack<\/a><\/p>\n

More details: https:\/\/t.co\/JUSk8YDaow<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/TqPUm9YBvU<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 30, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NASA called the endeavor a “Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event.” The maneuver was indeed a quick “tag” of Bennu’s surface. OSIRIS-REx carefully approached the asteroid for over four hours before briefly touching down and firing nitrogen gas to stir up fragments into Bennu’s sample collector. Then, the spacecraft promptly blasted away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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SEE ALSO: The space race forged immortal rock and roll guitars<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

OSIRIS-REx captured so much surface material that some of the fine grains even escaped<\/a> before the collector was stowed away for the return trip<\/a> home. The spacecraft is expected to arrive on Earth with the invaluable cargo on Sep. 24, 2023.\u00a0
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