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Replace for 11 a.m. EDT: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return tablet successfully landed with samples of asteroid Bennu at 10:52 a.m. EDT (8:52 a.m. MDT/1452 GMT) in the Utah desert as recovery groups watched. That you just would possibly undercover agent its recovery live to inform the tale Location.com. It will doubtless be in the window above.
The first asteroid samples ever smooth by NASA are closing in on Earth for a historic touchdown in the Utah desert on the present time (Sept. 24).
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which smooth samples of asteroid Bennu in 2020, released a tablet carrying that functional cargo at 6:42 a.m. EDT (1042 GMT) on a course to land on Earth. The spacecraft used to be 63,000 miles (101,388 kilometers) from Earth, about one-third the distance to the moon, when it released the sample tablet, with OSIRIS-REx itself flying past our planet to a original dash dilemma, NASA officials said.
An artist’s illustration of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft releasing its asteroid sample-return tablet correct by its Earth flyby on Sept. 24, 2023. (Image credit ranking: NASA)The $1 billion OSIRIS-REx mission, its name is instant for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Handy resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, launched in 2016 to focus on with and get samples of the shut to-Earth asteroid Bennu, which itself will flit shut by Earth in 2182. The mission is geared toward better notion the composition of the 1,650-foot-large (500 meters) Bennu and asteroids love it, remnants from the early photo voltaic system.
To this point, OSIRIS-REx’s sample return preparations like gone simply, with the sample tablet heading in the correct direction to reenter Earth’s atmosphere correct off the California flit, streaking all over the morning sky and parachute to the bottom at its Utah drop zone. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft itself, its job total, is now leaving Earth in the abet of.
At about 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), OSIRIS-REx successfully fired its engines in what NASA calls a diversion burn so it doesn’t fall to Earth like its sample tablet. The spacecraft is headed to a original target, the asteroid Apophis, which also can additionally flit shut to Earth in 2029. NASA officially renamed the mission OSIRIS-REx-APEX to point to the alternate.
“Roughly 1,000 feet large, Apophis will reach within 20,000 miles of Earth – now not up to one-tenth the distance between Earth and the Moon – in 2029.
NASA wrote in a separate update. “OSIRIS-APEX is scheduled to enter orbit of Apophis quickly after the asteroid’s shut methodology of Earth to peep how the reach upon affected the asteroid’s orbit, mosey rate, and ground.”
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Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Location.com and joined the workforce in 2001, first as an intern and workers creator, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and house science, to boot to skywatching and leisure. He changed into Location.com’s Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Forward of becoming a member of Location.com, Tariq used to be a workers reporter for The Los Angeles Occasions covering training and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Shoreline. In October 2022, Tariq bought the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in house reporting from the Nationwide Location Club Florida Committee. He will doubtless be an Eagle Scout (positive, he has the Location Exploration advantage badge) and went to Location Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an grownup. He has journalism levels from the University of Southern California and Fresh York University. You are going to get Tariq at Location.com and since the co-host to the This Week In Location podcast with house historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT community. To undercover agent his most up-to-date challenge, you can practice Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.
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