NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft changed how we think about asteroids. Here’s how.

OSIRIS-REx was the third mission in history to collect a sample from an asteroid  and featured the most comprehensive suite of instruments ever flown on an asteroid research mission. The spacecraft’s two years of scanning the surface of asteroid Bennu and its brief sample-collection touchdown showed scientists how little they know about space rocks. Prior to OSIRIS-REx‘s 2016 launch, two other missions studied asteroids in detail: Japan’s Hayabusa 1 that delivered sand and dust grains from asteroid Itokawa to Earth in 2010; and NASA’s NEAR-Shoemaker, which explored asteroid Eros in…

Read More

How much asteroid material is NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe delivering to Earth this weekend?

We’ll soon find out just how much asteroid dirt and rock NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected nearly three years ago. OSIRIS-REx‘s sample capsule is scheduled to come down to Earth on Sunday (Sept. 24), making a soft landing under parachutes in the Utah desert.  That capsule is full of precious cargo — material OSIRIS-REx snagged from the surface of a 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) near-Earth asteroid named Bennu in October 2020. Analyses of this space-rock stuff could reveal a great deal about the solar system’s early days, researchers say, and might even…

Read More

What if OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid-sample capsule crashes this weekend?

After seven years flying through space, a spacecraft capsule carrying a precious asteroid sample will touch down on Earth under parachutes this weekend. But what if it crashes?  A crash of NASA‘s OSIRIS-REx descent capsule on Sept. 24 is “the stuff of my nightmares,” the mission’s principal investigator, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, said recently. (OSIRIS-REx stands for “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.”) “If that parachute doesn’t open and we’re in the ‘hard landing’ contingency, fortunately we have a backup team member who will help me…

Read More

Watch an Asteroid Race Across the Sky

The kilometer-wide, potentially hazardous asteroid 1994 PC1 will fly past Earth on January 18th. Good news on two counts: It won’t hit us, and it’s bright enough to see in a 4-inch telescope. The post Watch an Asteroid Race Across the Sky appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Read More

Exploring Bright Galaxy Groups in Leo

Leo, the Lion, stands high in the southern sky during the early spring. We visit some of the constellation’s brighter galaxy clumps then go asteroid hunting. The post Exploring Bright Galaxy Groups in Leo appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Read More