NASA Spacecraft Approaches Asteroid, Takes First Photo

NASA's OSIRIS-Rex on 17 August, the asteroid Bennu is front and centre, from 2.3 million kilometers away. It was seen by the spacecraft amidst stars of the constellation Serpens. Photo Credit: NASA Goddard/University of Arizona

The U.S. is set for another huge discovery as NASA’s spacecraft is closing in on an ancient asteroid, Bennu, for a sample of space dust that could reveal clues to the start of life in the solar system.

It was learned that the spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, has even snapped its first, blurry pic of the cosmic body.

The body is about the size of a small mountain, about 500 yards (meters) in diameter.

The spacecraft is designed to circle Bennu, and reach out with a robotic arm to “high-five” its surface, then return the sample it collects to Earth in 2023.

“This is the closest we have even been to Bennu,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

“This is significant in that we are now in the vicinity of the asteroid, closer than we have ever been even during the close approaches of the asteroid to the Earth.”





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