The NASA probe “Osiris-Rex” (Osiris-Rex) successfully landed on the asteroid “Bennu” (Bennu) in October last year to collect samples. The latest progress shows that Osiris-Rex has left Bennu on Monday, local time, is expected to arrive on Earth in September 2023.
The Guardian reported that the Osiris has been orbiting Bennu since 2018, and scholars have been studying the details of the information on the asteroid during this period, looking for a wide enough area and relatively flat block as a landing site, and finally landed successfully in October last year, and successfully grabbed a large number of rock debris samples with a robotic arm, which can be said to be the most important after the Apollo program brought back samples of lunar gravel 50 years ago. An extraterrestrial sample collection mission.
University of Arizona chief scientist Lauretta (Dante Lauretta) said that the sample volume obtained by Oseris is estimated to be 0.5 to 1 pound, far exceeding the target set for 2 ounces, which is also the first time NASA collected samples from an asteroid. Japan has done it twice before.
Bennu is one of the oldest known asteroids and was chosen as a sampling target mainly because it is quite close to Earth and has a 1 in 2700 chance of impacting Earth in the next century.
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