OSIRIS-REx has captured an image of Earth as it flew by our planet for a gravity assist:
"The dark vertical streaks at the top of the image are caused by short exposure times (less than three milliseconds)," NASA officials wrote in an image description Tuesday (Sept. 26). "Short exposure times are required for imaging an object as bright as Earth, but are not anticipated for an object as dark as the asteroid Bennu, which the camera was designed to image."
The $800 million OSIRIS-REx mission — whose name is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer — launched on Sept. 8, 2016. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will arrive at the 1,640-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu late next year.
OSIRIS-REx will study the rock from orbit for more than 18 months and then head in to snag a sample of dirt and gravel from Bennu's surface in July 2020. This material will parachute to Earth's surface inside a special return capsule in September 2023.
Previously: OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission - Launch Successful
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Update: Launch successful.
NASA will launch the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft on Sept. 8. The spacecraft will attempt exploration and a sample return from the asteroid 101955 Bennu. It will arrive at Bennu in 2018 and map it before selecting a site for sample collection.
Bennu is thought to have formed soon after the sun, at around the same time as the solar system's planets. While the constant activity of volcanoes, earthquakes and erosion changed the chemistry of Earth's material since that time (as likely happened on other planets), Bennu remains virtually unmarred. A sample of the asteroid should therefore provide a time-capsule-like glimpse of the planets' youth, the researchers said.
[...] To complete its planned science objectives, OSIRIS-REx needs to collect a least a 2-ounce (60 grams) sample from Bennu. Once that material lands back on Earth, scientists will probe the sample with complex experiments that just aren't possible in space. [...] "This will be the largest sample-return mission since the Apollo era," said Christine Richey, OSIRIS-REx deputy program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The returned capsule will provide a bounty not only for today's scientists, but also for future generations, Richey said. Three-fourths of the sample will be archived for later study, allowing scientists to answer questions that haven't been thought of today, using instruments yet to be imagined.
Spaceflight Now has a page dedicated to providing updates on this flight: Live coverage: Thursday's Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal
[Continues...]
NASA reports, via NASA, that OSIRIS-REx is leaving Bennu.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx completed its last flyover of Bennu around 6 a.m. EDT (4 a.m. MDT) April 7 and is now slowly drifting away from the asteroid; however, the mission team will have to wait a few more days to find out how the spacecraft changed the surface of Bennu when it grabbed a sample of the asteroid.
The OSIRIS-REx team added this flyby to document surface changes resulting from the Touch and Go (TAG) sample collection maneuver Oct. 20, 2020. "By surveying the distribution of the excavated material around the TAG site, we will learn more about the nature of the surface and subsurface materials along with the mechanical properties of the asteroid," said Dr. Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona.
During the flyby, OSIRIS-REx imaged Bennu for 5.9 hours, covering more than a full rotation of the asteroid. It flew within 2.1 miles' (3.5 kilometers) distance to the surface of Bennu – the closest it's been since the TAG sample collection event.
Just to mention, the survey and selection of a sampling site was one of the recent "citizen science" projects.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:05PM (12 children)
Why the fuck did they pick such a shitty photo of the Pacific Ocean for the article? They should have shown some landmasses instead, not just a bunch of water and clouds.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:23PM (4 children)
The fuck is wrong with you? The climate on this planet is what makes it habitable. If anything, these 'bunches of water and clouds' are the thing that define this planet as what it is and what is present on it.
Dumb-ass...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:32PM
Kids (of all ages) these days don't see the big picture anymore. I blame social media!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:32PM (1 child)
OP has been sentenced to life imprisonment on Io.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2017, @03:26AM
It is expected to be a short sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @06:44PM
NASA isn't going to convince voters and politicians to increase their budget if they give us boring photos like this.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday September 27 2017, @07:06PM (6 children)
Because the Earth happened to show that side to the space probe when it passed by for swingby? Remember, the probe didn't pass Earth in order to make a photo.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 27 2017, @08:08PM (5 children)
No, the probe passed by Earth to steal some of our precious gravity.
Dirty thief.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday September 27 2017, @08:51PM (3 children)
Well, actually it stole some of Earth's kinetic energy. Gravity was only the device it used for that.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday September 27 2017, @10:11PM
Clearly we need to ensure we have the resources to chase after anything that steals our precious kinetic energy. I suggest a massive expansion of space funding.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday September 27 2017, @10:12PM
Or gave it some. Depends on your point of view.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 27 2017, @11:42PM
I don't care if it was kinetic energy [wikipedia.org] it stole, I want my share back!
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday September 27 2017, @09:15PM
They should have just installed more before they sent it up.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday September 27 2017, @10:23PM (1 child)
Was there not a more... well... spacey website to link to?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 28 2017, @01:26AM
And I didn't link to any of those articles.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday September 28 2017, @08:38AM
Never play with asteroids—they're what Murphy's law's all about!
This quote from Blake's 7 is suddenly becoming quite relevant.
So, there is an asteroid [wikipedia.org] that is a potential Earth impactor with a 1 in 2700 chance of impacting Earth (i.e., we're not absolutely certain about its orbit and the factors that are affecting it), and we are going to land a probe on it (thus affecting said orbit by some small amount) and remove samples from it (ditto)?
What could possibly go wrong?