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The diamond-shaped asteroid Bennu has a block "witch" and many other bumps and bumps, reveals a beautiful new video.
The photos that make up the video were captured last Friday (November 2nd) by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which almost caught Bennu after a two-year pursuit that began with the launch of the spacecraft in September 2016.
"We are now able to see the asteroid Bennu from all angles! The @OSIRISREx PolyCam camera has captured an image of each 10-degree rotation of Bennu's rotation over a four-hour period and eleven minutes on 2 November, taken about 122 miles from the Space Shuttle, "NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center officials told Greenbelt, Maryland, via Twitter on Tuesday, November 6. [OSIRIS-REx: NASA’s Asteroid Sample-Return Mission in Pictures]
We have now been able to see the asteroid Bennu from all sides! the @OSIRISREx The PolyCam camera captured an image every 10 degrees of Bennu's rotation over a period of four hours and eleven minutes on November 2nd. These images were taken about 122 miles from the probe. pic.twitter.com/BYxmm6nVeb
– NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) November 6, 2018
And in another recent series of OSIRIS-REx images, the Bennu wide by 1,640 feet (500 meters) is undergoing an increasingly sharp focus at as the probe progresses progressively.
The near-Earth asteroid, Bennu, emerges in this series of 16 images. These are almost daily images taken by the OSIRIS-REx probe as it headed for Bennu from October 12 to 29, 2018.
Credit: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona
While the inhabitants of the Earth polished their Halloween costumes, the PolyCam OSIRIS-REx used its long-range capabilities to take almost daily shots of Bennu as he emerged from the dark darkness of space. The sequence, published on November 2 by NASA, includes a total of 16 images.
PolyCam photographed Bennu's first image in this sequence on October 12, at a distance of 44,000 km (27,340 miles), more than a full turn around the Earth's equator. OSIRIS-REx took the last picture of the sequence on October 29th of about 320 km (200 km), about the distance that separates Washington DC from New York.
Image taken by the PolyCam camera aboard NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe on November 2, 2018, when the probe was about 196 kilometers from the asteroid Bennu.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
If all goes according to plan, OSIRIS-REx will arrive in Bennu on December 3rd, then will launch into orbit around the asteroid on December 31st. The probe will study the asteroid closely for about two years and will look to catch a sizeable sample of its surface. This material will come to Earth in a return capsule of samples in September 2023.
Researchers from around the world will then study the sample, looking for clues about the beginnings of the solar system and the role that carbon-rich asteroids, such as Bennu, have played in supplying blocks. building of life on Earth.
The OSIRIS-REx mission, with a budget of $ 800 million, also has several other subsidiary objectives, as indicated by its full name: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.
Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter@salazar_elin. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally posted on Space.com.
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