{"id":18282,"date":"2018-11-06T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T11:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/see-a-diamond-shaped-asteroid-from-all-sides-courtesy-of-osiris-rex-mission\/"},"modified":"2018-11-06T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T11:30:07","slug":"see-a-diamond-shaped-asteroid-from-all-sides-courtesy-of-osiris-rex-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/see-a-diamond-shaped-asteroid-from-all-sides-courtesy-of-osiris-rex-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"See a diamond-shaped asteroid from all sides, courtesy of OSIRIS-REx mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"See All of Asteroid Bennu in Time-Lapsed Rotation Video\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZCmFhvk_EWU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Two years after its launch, NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is closing in on a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu and sending back pictures that provide one gem of a 360-degree view.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, OSIRIS-REx captured imagery over the course of a four-hour, 11-minute period to take in a full rotation of the diamond-shaped space rock from a distance of about 122 miles.<\/p>\n<p>The view is whetting astronomers\u2019 appetite for even closer looks at Bennu, which is currently about 80 million miles from Earth. Over the next few weeks, OSIRIS-REx will carefully survey the quarter-mile-wide asteroid\u2019s terrain as it edges closer. During December, it\u2019ll execute three flybys, coming within just a few miles of the surface. And early next year, it\u2019ll settle into a close-in orbit and conduct a months-long survey.<\/p>\n<p>All that\u2019s just a buildup for the main event: the probe\u2019s descent to the surface in mid-2020 for the collection of samples that will be packed up for delivery to Earth in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona\u2019s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, was struck by Bennu\u2019s variations in surface reflectance, which hints at a diverse composition: \u201cThose dark areas have got the team buzzing with excitement!\u201d Lauretta tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/DSLauretta\/status\/1059900916352991232<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a boulder in Bennu\u2019s southern hemisphere that looks as if it\u2019s \u201cjust hanging on\u201d due to the asteroid\u2019s weak gravitational pull, Lauretta said in a different tweet.<\/p>\n<p>These features add to the intrigue surrounding the OSIRIS-REx mission,&nbsp;which is expected to provide insights into how the solar system was formed,&nbsp;how potentially threatening asteroids can be diverted, and how future space explorers can take advantage of what asteroids have to offer. For what it\u2019s worth, OSIRIS-REx is a tortured acronym that stands for&nbsp;Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security \u2013 Regolith Explorer.<\/p>\n<p>OSIRIS-REx isn\u2019t the only game in town when it comes to asteroid exploration: Japan\u2019s Hayabusa 2 probe is in the midst of its own survey of another diamond-shaped asteroid that looks a lot like Bennu, only twice as wide. Hayabusa 2 is due to grab bits of asteroid Ryugu next year and bring them back to Earth in 2020, well before OSIRIS-REx\u2019s delivery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two years after its launch, NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is closing in on a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu and sending back pictures that provide one gem of a 360-degree view. Last Friday, OSIRIS-REx captured imagery over the course of a four-hour, 11-minute period to take in a full rotation of the diamond-shaped space rock from a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4365,1519,1526,1527],"class_list":["post-18282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid","tag-asteroids","tag-bennu","tag-osiris-rex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}