NASA captures the Earth, the Moon and the asteroid together



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The spectacular photograph, which represents the Earth, Moon and Bennu on a single image, was taken while the space probe was about 114 million kilometers from our planet and about 43 kilometers from the asteroid .

NASA released an image, captured by the OSIRIS-REx robotic probe on December 19, before it revolves around the asteroid Bennu on December 31.

The photo was published through the US Space Agency. in the official account of the project. Bennu is visible to the right of the image, while the Earth and its natural satellite are on the left. In addition, part of the constellation of Hydra is observed in the lower right corner.

A Journey into a Setting …

My NavCam1 imager captured this image of Earth, Moon and Bennu before I went into orbit. ] During Orbital A, my team uses images such as "OpNav" for optical navigation to keep me on track. Image Details: https://t.co/qMT1e9cqxZ pic.twitter.com/MRb7uO1yX1

– OSIRIS-REx from NASA (@OSIRISREx) January 4, 2019 [19659007] A whole trip in one

During my orbit, my team used images of "OpNav" (optical navigation) like these to indicate the path to follow.

When I was in orbit, my camera was using images of "OpNav". 19659002] OSIRIS-REX was launched in September 2016 to bring to Earth a sample of Bennu's surface materials, one of the closest asteroids to Earth and potentially dangerous to our planet. From August to December 2018, December 3, the satellite completed the last 2.2 kilometers of its journey to finally approach a distance of 19 kilometers from the asteroid.

After a few days, the satellite encountered strong spectral evidence of the presence of molecules containing bound oxygen and hydrogen atoms, called "hydroxyl", which means that the rocky material of this asteroid interacted with water at some point

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