Bennu

OSIRIS REx curation team attempting to remove the two stuck fasteners that are currently prohibiting the complete opening of the TAGSAM head. Credit: NASA/Robert MarkowitzNASA’s Johnson Space Center team overcame technical challenges to access more of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample, exceeding collection goals and setting the stage for a comprehensive sample catalog release.Curation team members at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have successfully removed the two fasteners from the sampler head that had prevented…

You’d think grabbing a scoop of dirt off an orbiting space rock and then delivering it back to Earth would be the most complicated part of an asteroid sample collection mission, but the real challenge, it turns out, is actually opening that sample container once it’s back home. It’s taken a little over three months, but says it has finally removed two stuck fasteners that were preventing it from accessing the bulk of material collected from asteroid Bennu by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx dropped the sample off on…

NASA has discovered thousands of asteroids to date using its advanced ground and space-based telescopes. The list of asteroids includes a potentially life-threatening asteroid called Bennu which has a 1/2700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2195. With such possibility looming, the US space agency carried out a study of the asteroid by landing a spacecraft on it and collecting dust and rock samples, which recently returned to Earth. Now, NASA has repurposed the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to study another potentially…

2023 has been a ground-breaking year for NASA. From receiving asteroid sample to launching Psyche spacecraft, the US space agency achieved various milestones. As the year ends, we have compiled a list of 10 achievements of NASA.10 top achievements of NASA in 2023:1. This year NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio achieved a historic milestone as the first American to spend over a year in space, showcasing NASA's commitment to prolonged human space exploration. 2. OSIRIS-REx successfully deposited Bennu asteroid sample in the Utah…

The first analysis of the Bennu asteroid samples that NASA brought to Earth earlier this year has revealed some interesting results. We’d already determined that Bennu has an abundance of carbon and water, but a new analysis of the samples has left scientists scratching their heads.According to a post shared on Nature, scientists working with the new samples from Bennu have been particularly taken aback by the amount of magnesium, sodium, and phosphate found in the skin of the chunks taken from Bennu. This is a…

NASA's Osiris-Rex mission stopped at asteroid Bennu in 2020 and returned samples to Earth in September. Following this historic feat, a…

The ultimate aim of space scientists is to discover the origins of life and then figure out how things may move in the future in a better, more predicatble, way. Easier said than done, but scientists across the globe are hard at work on it. In 2023, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a groundbreaking discovery on asteroid Bennu, shedding light on the building blocks of life on Earth. This remarkable finding adds to our understanding of how Earth became a life-sustaining planet.NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission unveiled evidence…

NASA on Wednesday gave the public a first glimpse of what scientists found inside a sealed capsule that was returned to Earth last month carrying a carbon-rich soil sample scooped from an asteroid's surface, including water-bearing clay minerals.A small quantity of the material collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft three years ago from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu was unveiled in an auditorium at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, a little more than two weeks after it was parachuted into the Utah desert.The return…

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is adjusting its course and will return to Earth on September 24 with material from asteroid Bennu, according to mission officials.Mission officials said that on July 26, OSIRIS-REx fired up its engines for about 63 seconds to slightly thrust itself onto a course closer to Earth. This trajectory correction manoeuvre is the final adjustment needed to set up its path towards Earth.OSIRIS-REx, the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, is travelling at a speed of about 35,000…

More than six years have passed since the NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft embarked on its unique mission. Unlike most NASA expeditions, the spacecraft's destination was not a planet or a moon, but a 450-meter wide asteroid named 101955 Bennu. The mission's objective was to collect a minimum of 60 grams of sample material from the asteroid and return it to Earth. Right now, it is on the way home with almost 250 grams of primitive rocks stored in its locker. And to add to the excitement, NASA has announced the return date for…