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© NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin
The most accurate images of "the asteroid of the end of the world"
OSIRIS-Rex, NASA's spacecraft, has sent the most detailed images of the asteroid Pino to date, a sign of the continued success of one of the space exploration missions the most ambitious in the history of humanity.
The latest PENO images were taken by the NavCam 1 camera mounted on the spacecraft on January 17, 1.6 km above the surface of the asteroid.
As I fly over Bennu during Orbital A, my science cameras do not collect data. But my NavCam Imager 1 takes "OpNav" images (acronym for "optical navigation") like these to monitor my course around the asteroid.
Details of the image ➡️ https://t.co/BLXn6GU6Mypic.twitter.com/ZCTjYVxpnu
– OSIRIS-REx from NASA (@OSIRISREx) January 23, 2019
The images show Pano's South Pole in truly amazing details, with initial studies of the asteroid, supposed to be on Earth, continuing to pose a potential threat to life on our planet.
For those who stay on course at home … I've traveled a little less than 2.2 billion km since I left last September. 2016
I will stay in orbit around Bennu until the end of February, when I will begin a series of overflights for a detailed study. More details: https://t.co/rACre4nDe4pic.twitter.com/39kkEYTzNC
– OSIRIS-REx from NASA (@OSIRISREx) January 28, 2019
The OSIRIS-Rex mission was launched in 2016 with the stated goal of studying and collecting samples of the 1700-foot (1580-meter) space rock.
The vehicle arrived in Pino in December 2018, after traveling two billion kilometers from the Earth, but it is only recently that it began to go around the asteroid, the most small object explored by a spaceship built by the man.
Pino is very small and his gravity field is weak. NavCam 1 is therefore very important for tracking the asteroid and maintaining a difficult orbit.
A few days after arriving in Pino, OSIRIS-Rex sent pilot data revealing that the asteroid contained water. The vehicle will collect at least two ounces of samples that will be returned to Earth in 2023.
Source: RT
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