NASA Has a mission that no one's talking about.
About the mission
OSIRIS-REx is a NASA asteroid study and sample-return mission. The mission's primary goal, which is expected to occur October 20, 2020, at 6:12pm EDT, is to obtain a sample of at least 60 grams from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid, and return the sample to Earth for a detailed analysis.
Yes, it is targetted to collect today , and that's why it's an important topic to discuss right now.
Imagine ! a small thing made by humans is landing on a distant rock somewhere in the solar system beyond mars and collecting a small portion from it!
The asteroid is really far away, and to reach there, this spacecraft had launched way before on Sept. 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As planned, the spacecraft will reach Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023.
Why Bennu?
It might contain clues to the origin of life.
Analyzing a sample from Bennu will help planetary scientists better understand the role asteroids may have played in delivering life-forming compounds to Earth
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| Asteroid Bennu |
Why is it important now?
Why do we study asteroids? Well, The scientific interest in asteroids is due largely to their status as the remnant debris from the inner solar system formation process. Because some of these objects can collide with the Earth, asteroids are also important for having significantly modified the Earth's biosphere in the past.
By studying asteroids, we can finally figure out how life emerged, how water came to earth and so much more,
This might just be one of the greatest discoveries ever.
Keep checking NASA's Twitter HERE for a lot of updates for the same !!!
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