NASA releases new images to show historic landing, sample collection on asteroid
NASA's Osiris-Rex is going to grab a piece of asteroid Bennu
NASA released new images by the OSIRIS-REx mission on the asteroid Bennu.
The spacecraft collected a sample that will reach earth in 2023.
In the photographs, the spacecraft could be seen touching down, crushing some rocks on the surface.
(Courtesy: AFP)
Osiris-Rex will return back in September 2023, hopefully with the largest sample ever collected from space since the Apollo mission, potentially helping in knowing the origins of our solar system.
The images taken provide a play-by-play sequence of the dramatic landing, which include Osiris-Rex's sampling arm breaking a large but fragile rock on contact.
"Bottom line is, from analysis of the images that we've gotten down so far, is that the sampling event went really well, as good as we could have imagined it would," said Dante Lauretta, mission head.
"Particles are flying all over the place. We really did kind of make a mess on the surface of this asteroid, but it's a good mess, it's the kind of mess we were hoping for."