{"id":13491,"date":"2023-07-28T01:11:27","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T19:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=13491"},"modified":"2025-04-02T04:48:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:18:42","slug":"what-is-osiris-rex-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-osiris-rex-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"What is OSIRIS-REx spacecraft?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About OSIRIS-REx:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It is a NASA spacecraft mission<\/strong> designed to <strong>study the near-Earth asteroid called Bennu.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The name OSIRIS-REx stands for <strong>&#8220;Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Goal<\/strong>: To <strong>collect a sample weighing at least 2.1 ounces<\/strong> (59.5 grams) <strong>from<\/strong> asteroid 101955 <strong>Bennu<\/strong> (formerly known as 1999 RQ36) and then <strong>bring the sample to Earth.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The mission will <strong>help scientists investigate how planets formed<\/strong> and how life began, as well as <strong>improve our understanding of asteroids<\/strong> that could impact Earth.<\/li>\n<li>It is the <strong>first U.S. spacecraft to collect a sample from an asteroid.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It was <strong>launched on Sept. 8, 2016.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It <strong>reached its asteroid target in 2018<\/strong> <strong>and is bringing a small sample to Earth<\/strong> for study.<\/li>\n<li>The samples <strong>will arrive on Earth in 2023<\/strong>. <strong>An extended mission<\/strong> <strong>will take the spacecraft<\/strong> <strong>into<\/strong> orbit around <strong>near-Earth asteroid Apophis in 2029.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h3><strong>Key facts about Asteroid Bennu:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>It is located about <strong>200 million miles away <\/strong>from the Earth.<\/li>\n<li>It was <strong>discovered by<\/strong> a team from the <strong>NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It is a B-type asteroid<\/strong>, implying that it <strong>contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Around <strong>20-40 percent of Bennu\u2019s interior is empty space,<\/strong> and scientists believe that it was <strong>formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system\u2019s creation<\/strong>, implying that it is <strong>roughly 4.5 billion years old<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Bennu is <strong>believed to have been born in the Main Asteroid belt<\/strong> between Mars and Jupiter, and because of gravitational tugs from other celestial objects and the slight push asteroids get when they release absorbed sunlight, <strong>the asteroid is coming closer to Earth.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What is an Asteroid?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>An asteroid is <strong>a small rocky object that orbits the Sun.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>These objects are <strong>remnants from the early formation of our solar system<\/strong>, dating back billions of years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Most asteroids are found in the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, known as the asteroid belt<\/strong>, but they can <strong>also be found in other regions<\/strong> of the solar system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q)\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0What is Regolith?<\/h3>\n<p>Regolith refers to the layer of loose, unconsolidated material that covers the solid bedrock on the surface of a planet, moon, or other celestial body. It is composed of a mixture of fragmented rocks, soil, dust, and other particles that have accumulated over time through various geological processes such as weathering, impact cratering, volcanic activity, and erosion. Regolith can vary greatly in thickness and composition depending on the specific geological history and environmental conditions of the celestial body.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/science\/story\/osiris-rex-adjusts-course-to-get-closer-to-earth-with-asteroid-samples-2412612-2023-07-27\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Osiris-Rex adjusts course to get closer to Earth with asteroid samples<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OSIRIS-REx is a NASA spacecraft mission designed to study the near-Earth asteroid called Bennu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}