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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Tagging Bennu
NASA ^ | 21 Sep, 2023 | Image Credit: OSIRIS-REx, University of Arizona, NASA, Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio

Posted on 09/21/2023 12:47:11 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's arm reached out and touched asteroid 101955 Bennu on October 20, 2020, after a careful approach to the small, near-Earth asteroid's boulder-strewn surface. Dubbed a Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event, the 30 centimeter wide sampling head (TAGSAM) appears to crush some of the rocks in this close-up recorded by the spacecraft's SamCam. The image was snapped just after surface contact some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth. One second later, the spacecraft fired nitrogen gas from a bottle intended to blow a substantial amount of Bennu's regolith into the sampling head, collecting the loose surface material. And now, nearly three years later, on Sunday, September 24, that sample of asteroid Bennu is scheduled to arrive on planet Earth. The sample return capsule will be dropped off by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft as it makes a close flyby of Earth. Twenty minutes after the drop-off, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters to divert past Earth and continue on to orbit near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis.

(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: 101955bennu; asteroid; asteroidbennu; asteroids; astronomy; nasa; osirisrex; science
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 09/21/2023 12:47:11 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Click on the photo at the link to go to the detailed photo which has a time sequence of photos for the asteroid sample collection process.


2 posted on 09/21/2023 12:48:32 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

3 posted on 09/21/2023 12:48:55 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; Agatsu77; America_Right; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

๐Ÿช ๐ŸŒŸ ๐ŸŒŒ ๐Ÿ”


4 posted on 09/21/2023 12:49:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

5 posted on 09/21/2023 12:51:05 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Why are asteroids made of rocks?...................


6 posted on 09/21/2023 12:51:26 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger
Why are asteroids made of rocks?...................

If they were made of charcoal they would be hard to see.

7 posted on 09/21/2023 12:53:56 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Red Badger
Why are asteroids made of rocks?...................

Because we have depleted all of the cheese in the universe to use on cheeseburgers. One of the reasons beef will be banned.

8 posted on 09/21/2023 12:54:19 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: DannyTN; MtnClimber

We are told that all the planets and stuff in the solar system, including comets and asteroids, coalesced from the debris of an extinct star that went nova or supernova at some remote time in the past.

Are there rocks in the center of stars? Solids I’m sure, like heavy metals and lots of Hydrogen gas.

Yet the gas giants are full of methane, ammonia, some amount of water and lots of other minor gases.

Comets are described as ‘dirty snowballs’.

We are told that the asteroid belt is a planet the didn’t quite make it due to lack of mass.

So, where did the ‘rocks’ come from that made the asteroids and the inner planets?................


9 posted on 09/21/2023 1:06:28 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

you have some good questions. Stars are mostly hydrogen and helium. Heavier elements up to iron are created in heavy stars as they age. Finally heavy stars explode in a super nova and create the elements beyond iron. So yes old stars create all the elements which make rocks, asteroids, comets, and planets. We are made of star stuff.


10 posted on 09/21/2023 2:02:41 PM PDT by Western Patriot (Give me liberty or give me death.)
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To: Western Patriot
We are made of star stuff.

Billyuns and billyuns ...


11 posted on 09/21/2023 2:12:19 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's enemy action.)
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To: Red Badger

Looks like this picture was taken in a railroad “Coal car!” (more Hollywood deception!)

Don’t let that coal land on our Earth, it might cause more Global Warming!

Oh, the huge manatee!


12 posted on 09/21/2023 2:28:51 PM PDT by BatGuano (2020 = Stolen Election. Believe it! Molon Labe.)
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To: Red Badger

Let’s just face it, we don’t know shite about anything.


13 posted on 09/21/2023 3:55:19 PM PDT by slouper (LWRC SPR 5.5 6)
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To: Red Badger
Why are asteroids made of rocks?...................

Good question, Red! Iโ€™m not sure why asteroids are made of rocks. Maybe theyโ€™re made of chocolate and the solar system is just hiding it from us.

Or maybe theyโ€™re made of diamonds and the universe is just too greedy to share them with us. Ask me again tomorrow. ๐Ÿ˜œ

14 posted on 09/21/2023 4:39:32 PM PDT by Deaf and Discerning
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To: slouper; Red Badger

...and half of what we do know is just plain wrong!


15 posted on 09/21/2023 4:39:37 PM PDT by null and void ( Fall Is Here: Pumpkin Spice-Scented Children Presented To Joe Biden)
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To: MtnClimber

Doesn’t Deep State bring back the Andromeda Strain today...?


16 posted on 09/24/2023 5:19:21 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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