![]() This will help the researchers confirm that samples of Bennu were successfully obtained. Nasa asteroid watch and html5 series#Preliminary results show that OSIRIS-REx touched Bennu’s surface for only about 6 seconds before the spacecraft fired its thrusters to back away, according to NASA.It’s not yet known how much material was collected, but mission scientists will now perform a series of maneuvers to measure whether there has been a change in mass in the robotic arm’s collection plate. It's the kind of mess we were hoping for.”Though it took several hours for the spacecraft to reach the asteroid’s surface, the actual encounter was very brief. “We really did kind of make a mess on the surface of this asteroid, but it's a good mess. After OSIRIS-REx made contact with the asteroid, the spacecraft fired a nitrogen gas canister to kick up debris into the collection plate.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was in contact with Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft fired its thrusters to back away.NASA/Goddard/University of ArizonaThe newly released footage showed the moment that OSIRIS-REx thumped the asteroid’s surface, throwing dust and rubble up into the camera’s field of view.“You can see that particles are flying all over the place,” Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission, said Wednesday in a news briefing. The images were taken by a camera aboard OSIRIS-REx and show the final moments of the spacecraft’s descent.As the probe approached Bennu’s rocky surface, it extended an 11-foot-long robotic arm equipped with a round collection plate on the end. On Wednesday, the agency released new footage of the spacecraft’s cosmic encounter with the asteroid Bennu. The intricate maneuver, conducted more than 200 million miles away from Earth, was the first time NASA collected pieces of an asteroid in space. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched down briefly on an asteroid Tuesday, gathering samples of the space rock that will be delivered to Earth in 2023. In the end, it was more of a punch than a high five. Watch the exact moment a NASA spacecraft ‘tags’ an asteroid ![]()
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