The mission to bring 4.5-year asteroid specimens back to Earth

The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will approach the asteroid Bennu and bring the specimen back to Earth for scientific research.

NASA launched the OSIRIS-Rex into space last September with the task of studying Bennu, a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid and taking the specimen back to Earth, NJ on 1 October.

The OSIRIS-Rex flew over the Earth on September 22, taking advantage of the gravity to adjust the route to Bennu, while capturing some images of the Earth. The ship is expected to reach its target in 2018 and bring the specimen back to Earth in 2023.

OSIRIS-Rex is on its way to the asteroid Bennu.(Photo: NJ).

What collected from this asteroid may reveal new details about the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago, according to Harold Connolly, professor of geology at Rowan University who is in charge of examining samples. OSIRIS-Rex brings success.

"The Earth is made up of materials that today only exist in asteroids. The original compounds that can bring life to Earth millions of years ago ignited when asteroids debris , or meteorites, rush through the atmosphere. When meteors fall to Earth, they immediately become infected, " Connolly said.

Infection makes it difficult for scientists to determine the asteroid's composition, the step needed to calculate the path as they move through the universe.

Bennu is an asteroid capable of crashing into the Earth in the 22nd century with a probability of 1/2700. Predicting this asteroid's trajectory is difficult, because one side of it is constantly heated by the Sun, making its movement constantly changing. Small changes can add up to big changes, deciding whether it will graze or crash into Earth.

In 2013, a 17m-wide Chelyabinsk meteorite plunged into Russia, ignited and released energy equivalent to hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives. Meanwhile, the asteroid Bennu is about 500 meters in size.

Connolly is focusing on establishing asteroids maps of Bennu to help locate the OSIRIS-REx ship to take samples. He is also participating in a similar mission of the Japan Aerospace Research and Development Agency (JAXA), named Hayabusa2 to study Ryugu asteroids.