OSIRIS-REx
Source : Economics Times
GS III: Scinec and Technology
Overview
- News in Brief
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REx
- About Bennu
Why in the News?
OSIRIS-REx is NASA’s first mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, survey its surface and collect a sample from it.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid.
- OSIRIS-Rex: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer
- It will return to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, with material from asteroid Bennu.
- When it arrives, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will release the sample capsule for a safe landing in the Utah desert.
- The pristine material from Bennu rocks and dust collected from the asteroid’s surface in 2020 will offer generations of scientists a window into the time when the Sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago.
About Bennu
- Bennu is a fascinating subject for study because it offers valuable insights into the formation of the Solar System.
- It belongs to the B-type asteroid classification, which is a subcategory of the carbonaceous C-type asteroids, and has a very dark surface.
- These types of asteroids are primitive and have undergone minimal geological change since their formation.
- Bennu is particularly intriguing because it contains pristine carbonaceous material that is crucial in the formation of organic molecules necessary for life.
- Furthermore, this material is from before the formation of Earth.
- Previous studies have detected organic molecules such as amino acids in meteorite and comet samples, which suggests that vital components for life can be naturally synthesized in outer space.
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