After having started the week with the (truly amazing) landing of Insight on Mars, I close it with the news of another event not less spectacular, also by NASA: Osiris-REX, after more than two years of travelling in outer space, will reach Bennu on Monday 3 December.
What’s Bennu, anyway? It’s a NEO (Near-Earth Object), and more precisely, an asteroid. Since it is an ancient relic of our solar system’s early days, it can provide essential information about it. “Bennu has seen more than 4.5 billion years of history. Scientists think that within 10 million years of our solar system’s formation, Bennu’s present-day composition was already established. Bennu likely broke off from a much larger carbon-rich asteroid about 700 million to 2 billion years ago.
It likely formed in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and has drifted much closer to Earth since then. Because its materials are so old, Bennu may contain organic molecules similar to those that could have been involved with the start of life on Earth.” (For more about Bennu, check out NASA’s website)
As it was the case with Insight, NASA is going to broadcast it. The probe should arrive at about 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT), and NASA will webcasting it from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. EST (1645 to 1715 GMT).
This is the link for NASA Live’s Official Stream, where you could watch it all. Enjoy!
Oh wow! Thank you for this article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it:).
Thanks Sarah… this is such an exciting moment!