NASA shares final photo taken by OSIRIS-REx of asteroid Bennu
Shane McGlaun - Apr 16, 2021, 5:02am CDT
Not long ago, NASA had its spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx make one final flyby of asteroid Bennu before departing for the long trip back to Earth. One reason for the flyby was so that the spacecraft can capture an image showing the aftermath of its encounter with the asteroid. On that final flyby, OSIRIS-REx flew within 2.3 miles of the asteroid, which is the closest it has been to Bennu since the sample collection event last October.
During the sample collection event, the spacecraft sampling head was jammed 1.6-feet into the asteroid’s surface, and a pressurized charge of nitrogen gas was fired. That caused the churning of surface material and drove some of the material into the spacecraft sample collection chamber. When OSIRIS-REx backed away from the asteroid’s surface, its thrusters also propelled rocks and dust away from the surface of the asteroid.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is only a few weeks away from the start of its journey back to Earth leaving asteroid Bennu behind for good. Well, not the whole asteroid. Last October 20, the NASA spacecraft touched briefly on the asteroid surface (Touch-And-Go maneuver or TAG) and collected a sample of soil and this will soon come to Earth.
During TAG the spacecraft sampling head sunk about half a meter (1.6 feet) into the soil releasing a charge of nitrogen gas to lift soil into the collection chamber. On April 7, OSIRIS-REx flew just 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) from Bennu, the closest it has been since TAG. And the team took this flyby to have a look at what the effect of TAG was.
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