Tagging Bennu

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2020 October 22

Tagging Bennu
Image Credit: OSIRIS-REx, University of Arizona,
NASA, Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio

Explanation: On October 20,
after a careful approach
to the boulder-strewn surface, the
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s arm reached out and touched asteroid Bennu. Dubbed a
Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event, the 30 centimeter wide
sampling head (TAGSAM) appears to crush some of the rocks in this
snapshot. The close-up scene was recorded by the spacecraft’s SamCam
some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth,
just after surface contact. One second later, the spacecraft fired nitrogen gas
from a bottle intended to blow a substantial amount of
Bennu’s regolith
into the sampling head, collecting the loose surface material. Data show the spacecraft spent approximately 5 more seconds in contact
with Bennu’s Nightingale sample site and then performed its back-away burn. Timelapse frames from SamCam
reveal the aftermath.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space

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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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Source: apod.nasa.gov