Touchdown on Asteroid Bennu
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Text, News From The Universe. October 28, 2020
Touchdown on Asteroid Bennu
Images show a lander's pad touching down on a gravelly surface.
In a NASA first, the OSIRIS-Rex mission has successfully collected samples of an asteroid to return to Earth.
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The spacecraft performed precise maneuvers to avoid the huge boulder "Mount Doom" and touch down at the site named "Nightingale."
Bennu is an ancient, well-preserved asteroid, potentially offering insight into the formation of the solar system and the origin of life.
OSIRIS-Rex is expected to return to Earth with samples of Bennu in 2023
This news was brought to you in part by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD