“After spending so long planning for this moment, I can't wait to see what Bennu reveals to us.” “Now that Osiris-REX is close enough to observe Bennu, the mission team will spend the next few weeks learning as much as possible about Bennu's size, shape, surface features, and surroundings before the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid,” says Dante Lauretta (University of Arizona) in a recent press release. Osiris-REX's Pol圜am captured the motion of asteroid Bennu against the starry background over an hour. From Osiris-REX's vantage point, Bennu is now an unresolved, +11th magnitude "star," moving across the constellation Serpens in the background. Osiris-REX (the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) officially entered its close approach phase on August 24th, reaching just 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers, just under five times the Earth-Moon distance) from asteroid 101955 Bennu. It may look like a dot moving against a starry background right now, but 101955 Bennu will swell into a brave new world begging for exploration in the coming months. Osiris-REX spies asteroid 101955 Bennu (circled) from 1.4 million miles away. Now the spacecraft is setting up for its close approach in December. NASA's Osiris-REX asteroid sample return mission spies target Bennu for the first time.
0 kommentar(er)
