December 23, 2019
The same gravity that holds galaxies together and keeps planets in their orbits also held you to the Earth on the day you were born.
Places for OSIRIS-REx to Touch Asteroid Bennu
Birthday · December 23, 2019
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APOD published December 23, 2019 · Video still. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Where is the best place to collect a surface sample from asteroid Bennu? Launched in 2016, NASA sent the robotic Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) to investigate the 500-meter-across asteroid 101955 Bennu. After mapping the near-Earth asteroid's dark surface, OSIRIS-REx will next touch Bennu's surface in 2020 August to collect a surface sample. The featured 23-second time-lapse video shows four candidate locations for the touch, from which NASA chose just one earlier this month. NASA chose the Nightingale near Bennu's northern hemisphere as the primary touch-down spot because of its relative flatness, lack of boulders, and apparent abundance of fine-grained sand. Location Osprey is the backup. NASA plans to return soil samples from Bennu to Earth in 2023 for a detailed analysis. Free Presentation: APOD Editor to show best astronomy images of 2019 -- and the decade -- in NYC on January 3