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NASA probe Osiris-Rex 'kisses' asteroid Bennu in historic mission

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Ivan Couronne, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/reuters/10/21/nasa.jpg"/><figcaption><em>AFP</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>After a four-year journey, NASA&#x27;s robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu&#x27;s boulder-strewn surface on Wednesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth.</p><p>The so-called &quot;Touch-And-Go&quot; or TAG maneuver was managed by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado, where at 6:12 pm (2212 GMT) an announcer said: &quot;Touchdown declared. Sampling is in progress,&quot; and scientists erupted in celebration.</p><p>The historic mission was 12 years in the making and rested on a critical 16 second period where the spacecraft performed a delicate autonomous maneuver to grab its payload: at least 60 grams (two ounces), or a candy-bar sized amount of surface material that scientists hope will help unravel the origins of our solar system.</p><p>If Osiris-Rex successfully comes home in September 2023, it will have collected the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era.</p><p>&quot;We think we actually might be coming back with a baby picture of what the solar system was like, of what our chemistry was like, billions of years ago,&quot; NASA scientist Michelle Thaller said.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re looking for our own origins out there, and that&#x27;s why we&#x27;ve gone so far to bring a bit of Bennu back.&quot;</p><p>The spacecraft, about the size of a large van, slowed down to a crawl of just 10 centimeters (four inches) per second on the final phase of its descent into the asteroid&#x27;s Nightingale crater on the north pole of the asteroid, which is 490 meters (1,600 feet) in diameter. </p><p>It eased its robotic arm down to a target zone just eight meters (26 feet) in diameter, or equal to about three parking spaces, then fired pressurized nitrogen to agitate the surface material and catch its sample.</p><p>The spacecraft fired its thrusters to back away from Bennu&#x27;s surface.</p><p>All of this occurred about 18.5 minutes earlier than announced, and the first images will only be available Wednesday once the probe is further away and has a higher data transmission rate.</p><p>We will have to wait until Saturday to find out if Osiris-Rex has succeeded in collecting the desired amount of dust.</p><p>Scientists want at least 60 grams but the spacecraft is capable of picking up as much as two kilograms, or five pounds.</p><p>Beth Buck of Lockheed Martin explained that it&#x27;s not possible to actually land on the asteroid, &quot;so we will only be kissing the surface.&quot; </p><div><strong>&#x27;Rosetta stone&#x27; </strong></div><p>Scientists are interested in analyzing the composition of the asteroids in the solar system because they are made of the same materials that formed the planets.</p><p>It&#x27;s &quot;almost a Rosetta stone, something that&#x27;s out there and tells the history of our entire Earth, of the solar system during the last billions of years,&quot; said NASA&#x27;s chief scientist, Thomas Zurbuchen.</p><p>Laboratories on Earth will be able to carry out much more high powered analysis of their physical and chemical characteristics, said NASA&#x27;s planetary science division director Lori Glaze.</p><p>Not all samples will be analyzed immediately, like those brought back from the Moon by the Apollo astronauts, which NASA is still opening up 50 years later.</p><p>NASA chose this particular asteroid because it is conveniently close and also ancient: scientists calculated that it formed in the first 10 million years of our solar system&#x27;s history, 4.5 billion years ago.</p><p>After Osiris-Rex reached the rock at the end of 2018, the scientists were surprised to receive photographs showing that it was covered with pebbles and boulders sometimes 30 meters high. </p><p>Last year, Japan managed with its Hayabusa2 probe to collect some dust from another asteroid, Ryugu, and is now on its way home. </p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r4Q62skSsG4?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>After a four-year journey, NASA's robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu's boulder-strewn surface on Wednesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth.</p>

After a four-year journey, NASA's robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu's boulder-strewn surface on Wednesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth.

NASA probe Osiris-Rex 'kisses' asteroid Bennu in historic mission

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NASA probe Osiris-Rex 'kisses' asteroid Bennu in historic mission

Ivan Couronne,

Agence France-Presse

Published Oct 21, 2020 08:45 AM PHT

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NASA

Osiris-Rex

Space explorations

outer space

rock sample

cosmic dust

Lockheed Martin Space

Science

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scientists

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