On this day, 2020: NASA's OSIRIS-REx touches asteroid Bennu
On October 20, 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched the asteroid Bennu to grab a sample of rock and dust, SpaceNews and the BBC reported. The probe later brought 121.6 grams of material back to Earth in 2023, according to NASA. That was twice the mission's goal.
On October 20, 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched down on the asteroid Bennu in a bid to collect a sample of its surface, SpaceNews and the BBC reported at the time.
The spacecraft's sampling arm touched a crater called Nightingale at 6:12 PM Eastern time, SpaceNews reported. The device, called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, stayed on the surface for several seconds and fired a burst of nitrogen gas to kick up loose material and trap it, before the spacecraft backed away as planned, SpaceNews reported.
The probe descended slowly to the 8-meter-wide target zone over four and a half hours, squeezing past large boulders, including a two-story block nicknamed Mount Doom, the BBC reported.
"Everything went just exactly perfect," said Dante Lauretta, the mission's principal investigator at the University of Arizona, SpaceNews reported. "The team is exuberant, emotions are high, everyone is really proud," he said, according to the BBC.
Scientists wanted Bennu's dust and grit because the very primitive asteroid could hold clues about the chemistry that formed the sun and planets more than 4.5 billion years ago, the BBC reported. The mission's goal was to collect at least 60 grams of material, SpaceNews reported.
The team had to wait days to learn how much material had been captured, SpaceNews and the BBC reported. Controllers planned to photograph the sampler head and spin the spacecraft to measure any added mass, the BBC reported.
The spacecraft later delivered 4.29 ounces, or 121.6 grams, of material from Bennu, the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space and more than twice the mission's requirement, according to NASA. Its capsule landed at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range on September 24, 2023, NASA reported. Studies of the samples have since found molecules that are key to life on Earth, NASA reported. A follow-on mission, OSIRIS-APEX, will study the asteroid Apophis after its close pass by Earth in 2029, NASA reported.
What we know: OSIRIS-REx touched Bennu on October 20, 2020, and returned 121.6 grams of asteroid material in 2023.
What we don't: Scientists are still studying the samples, and more findings are expected in the years ahead.
Where outlets agree SpaceNews and the BBC reported the October 20, 2020, touchdown on Bennu, and NASA's mission page records the sample's return in 2023.
Where they differ The outlets cited here report the same key facts so far.