And since Bennu has a 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting Earth about 200 years from now, researchers figure it would be good to glean some insights about the asteroid's fate - and how it might intersect with our own.īennu is so small, dark and distant (about 75 million miles from Earth at the moment) that scientists could only theorize about what it might look like when they launched OSIRIS-REx two years ago. They may also uncover potentially useful natural resources such as organic molecules and precious metals. Studying the sample in terrestrial labs, scientists hope to uncover clues about the birth of the planets and the origins of Earth's water and life. It will be the largest planetary sample retrieved since the Apollo era, when astronauts brought rocks back from the moon. In a kiss-like maneuver, the spacecraft's robotic arm will collect some material from Bennu's surface, then sling the sample back toward Earth. OSIRIS-REx will spend the next 18 months there, surveying the landscape and probing Bennu's chemical makeup before finally selecting what piece of the asteroid it wants to bring back home. OSIRIS-REx was finally at the doorstep of its new home.īennu is a carbonaceous asteroid - a primitive, carbon-rich piece of debris left over from the process that formed the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Soon an image of the asteroid appeared on the mission control screens: a diamond-shaped body with a rough, speckled exterior.
OSIRIS-REx was within 12 miles of Bennu's surface - about the distance between the White House and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which manages the spacecraft. Then Cerna grinned and spread his arms out wide. "Standby for Bennu arrival," Cerna announced. Sitting at mission control at the Denver offices of Lockheed Martin, which operates the spacecraft for NASA, engineer Javi Cerna waited for the signal indicating OSIRIS-REx had begun the burn needed to bring it close to its target.
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