Tomorrow, October 20th, marks an exciting time in the exploration of our solar system. NASA’s spacecraft, which is a joint project between NASA, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, will land on the asteroid Bennu tomorrow afternoon (Mack, 2020). Osiris-Rex, the spacecraft, plans to land on the asteroid and collect samples of its carbon-rich surface, stay in orbit for another year, and then make the journey back to Earth. NASA plans to broadcast the event on their website.
But why Bennu? What’s so special about this particular asteroid? Bennu is what’s called a “rubble pile” asteroid (Mack, 2020). That means that this asteroid was formed about the same time as our solar system, and it survived millions of years while remaining somewhat intact (Mack, 2020). It is located on an orbit between Earth and Mars (Anderson, 2020).
The formation of our solar system happened over the course of millions of years (Gough, 2020). A molecular cloud, full of hydrogen and helium, collapsed due to the imbalance of gravitational forces within the cloud (Gough, 2020). As the cloud got hotter and denser, objects started to form. Most of them coalesced into one giant mass, a protostar (Gough, 2020). A disk of gas and dust formed around the protostar (Gough, 2020). Eventually, nuclear fusion began within the star, becoming what we know as the Sun. Other masses started to form around the star, including asteroids, planets, and moons, including Bennu. Scientists think Bennu was one of the many asteroids that contained carbon, and by studying the composition of Bennu, we will have a better understanding of how our solar system formed and how life began on Earth.
Over the last two years, the Osiris-Rex has been orbiting Bennu and gathering data from a distance (Mack, 2020). Osiris-Rex plans to land on the asteroid tomorrow, and do what is called a TAG, or Touch-And-Go sample collection (Morton, 2020), so the spacecraft won’t be on the surface of Bennu for more than a few minutes. The spacecraft will gather about 2 grams of material on a site called Nightingale (Anderson, 2020). Nightingale is a relatively flat site on the asteroid that is surrounded by boulders (Morton, 2020). A robotic arm attached to the spacecraft will collect the sample (Morton, 2020). All of the maneuvers will be done automatically, as it takes about 18.5 minutes to send signals and commands to the spacecraft from Earth (Morton, 2020). NASA says they plan to have the spacecraft back here on Earth in 2023 to analyze the material the spacecraft collected (Mack, 2020). Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow to watch the Osiris-Rex land on the asteroid!
You can watch the livestream here around 4 pm tomorrow: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive
References
Anderson, P. S. (2020, October 14). OSIRIS-Rex Prepares to Land on Asteroid Bennu October 20. AmericaSpace. https://www.americaspace.com/2020/10/14/nasas-osiris-rex-reveals-secrets-of-asteroid-bennu-prepares-for-sample-return-attempt-on-october-20/
Gough, E. (2020, October 14). We're Made of Starstuff. Especially From Extremely Massive Stars. Universe Today. https://www.universetoday.com/148302/were-made-of-starstuff-especially-from-extremely-massive-stars/
Mack, E. (2020, October 15). NASA's Osiris-Rex about to land on asteroid Bennu: Here's what will happen. C|net. https://apple.news/AFeRB00afSrecsZnzf9p0LA
Morton, E. (2020, September 24). OSIRIS-Rex Begins its Countdown to TAG. Asteroid Mission.
https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=osiris-rex-begins-its-countdown-to-tag
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