JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission will be the first U.S. mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and have it return to Earth. Osiris-Rex will be arriving on Sunday with a sample of the asteroid, Bennu.
"There is a lot of nerves, it’s like a nervous, exciting and adrenaline," NASA Space Scientist Jennifer Stern, who is working with the mission told First Coast News Friday about the level of anticipation. "Osiris-Rex launched in 2016 and its goal is to go to an asteroid that contains carbonaceous material and is relatively close to Earth. [Its job is to] grab a sample and bring it back to Earth so scientists can study it."
So, why would we do this?
Jennifer elaborated and said, “Asteroids are pieces of rock and metal that are left over from the formation of our solar system. And because of that, they are pristine time capsules of the raw ingredients that would have been around on early Earth and other planets. This includes things like water or organic matter that could have been on early planets and at least on Earth, could have been some of the raw ingredients of life.”
Now you might be curious, how exactly did they get a sample of an asteroid?
“So, that part is super cool, the maneuver is called touch and go," Stern said. "So, we didn’t actually land on this asteroid. We basically shot a harpoon at it, which grabbed a sample and pulled it back into the spacecraft.”
This asteroid is considered a NEO or a near earth object. But, what does that mean?
“It’s a near earth object, which means it is relatively close to earth," Stern said. "And at it’s closest approach, it will have a 1/10th of one percent to encounter earth. So, even though it’s close for an object in space, it's still quite far away and is not something that keeps us up at night.”
Osiris-Rex is bound to put on an incredible show over Utah.
“It’s going to be coming in hot, I think it’s something like 27,000 miles per hour as it enters the atmosphere," Stern said.