NASA asteroid sampler took a big bite out of Bennu

摘要

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is a cosmic rock collector. On October 20, scientists on Earth got word that the spacecraft had successfully grabbed rocks from a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. OSIRIS-REx (illustrated below) aimed to gather at least 60 grams. On October 29, the team announced the collector was full to capacity when it pulled away from Bennu, which means the craft carried about two kilograms of material. "Imagine a sack of flour at the grocery store," mission principal investigator Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona in Tucson said at a news conference. OSIRIS-REx will return to Earth in 2023, where scientists will analyze the rocks in hopes of learning about solar system and Earth history (SN: 1/19/19, p. 20).