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Bringing
home a
piece of an
Asteroid
By Sherry Valare
Upon first hearing the name OSIRIS-REx, a picture
of an unknown carnivorous dinosaur may come to
mind. But OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral InterpretationResource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) is
actually an acronym that names an upcoming asteroid exploration mission. A spacecraft will travel to an
asteroid target in a near Earth orbit, perform scientific experiments, and become the first U.S. mission that
gathers a sample from the surface to be returned
back to Earth for further study.
This mission will try to answer some fundamental
questions about our existence. What are the building
blocks for our creation? What will the future bring?
The size of asteroid Bennu, in comparison to two Earth landmarks.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.
To understand the OSIRIS-REx mission further, let’s
take a look at what an asteroid is. An asteroid is not
the same as a comet or a meteoroid – there are
differences in composition, origin of their formation,
and size. An asteroid will have a diameter of at least
one meter or more, and it is made of debris left
after the solar system formed – primarily minerals
and rock.
Many asteroids exist – millions, as a matter of fact.
Most of the ones we know about reside in a place in
the inner part of the solar system called the asteroid
belt (which lies in between the orbits of planets Mars
and Jupiter), and some even share an orbit with
Jupiter.
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