{"id":37518,"date":"2023-10-01T05:02:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T23:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37518"},"modified":"2025-04-22T23:05:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:35:52","slug":"osiris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/osiris\/","title":{"rendered":"OSIRIS-Rex Spacecraft Brings Back Sample from Asteroid Bennu"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About OSIRIS-Rex<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About Asteroids<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Classification of Asteroids<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About Asteroid Bennu<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why Bennu was Chosen as the Target Asteroid?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>OSIRIS-REx<\/strong> (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer), the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, returned on Earth with material from asteroid <strong>Bennu<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>So far, <strong>Japan<\/strong> is the only other country to similarly bring asteroid samples to the Earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About OSIRIS-REx:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/10\/1\/13\/22\/2\/651925226ea810072d578079_OI.PNG\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) asteroid-study and sample-return mission.<\/li>\n<li>The mission was launched in September, 2016. The spacecraft reached asteroid\u00a0<strong>Bennu<\/strong> in 2018.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective:<\/strong> To obtain a sample of at least 60 gm from Bennu and return the sample to Earth for a detailed analysis.<\/li>\n<li>In October 2020, the spacecraft contacted the surface of the asteroid successfully and fired a burst of nitrogen gas meant to stir rocks and soil.\n<ul>\n<li>Once the surface was disturbed, the spacecraft\u2019s robotic arm captured some samples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>NASA had also confirmed that shortly after the spacecraft made contact with the surface, it fired its thrusters and \u201csafely backed away from Bennu\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Asteroids:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Asteroids are <strong>small, rocky objects<\/strong> that orbit the Sun.<\/li>\n<li>Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets. They are also known as <strong>planetoids<\/strong> or <strong>minor planets<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>There are millions of asteroids, ranging in size from hundreds of kms to several feet across.<\/li>\n<li>In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of Earth&#8217;s moon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Classification of Asteroids:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/10\/1\/13\/22\/5\/651925256ea810072d57807a_OI.PNG\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Asteroids lie within three regions of the solar system:<\/li>\n<li><strong>Asteroid Belt:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Asteroid belt is the <strong>region between Mars and Jupiter<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This region contains the majority of known asteroids and is estimated to have 1 to 2 million asteroids larger than 1 km in diameter and millions of smaller ones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Near-Earth Asteroids:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) circle closer to Earth than the Sun.<\/li>\n<li>About 10,000 NEAs have been discovered to date. And over 1,400 have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids or PHAs.<\/li>\n<li>Astronomers employ the <strong>Torino Scale<\/strong> for categorizing the impact hazard associated with PHAs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trojan Asteroids:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Asteroids share an orbit with a larger planet.<\/li>\n<li>The Trojan Asteroids do not collide with the parent planet because they are located in places known as <strong>Lagrange points<\/strong> where the gravitational pull of the Sun and the planet are balanced.<\/li>\n<li>Jupiter has the largest number of Trojan asteroids discovered to date.<\/li>\n<li>Neptune, Mars and Earth also have Trojan asteroids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Asteroid Bennu:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Bennu is a B-type <strong><u>Near-Earth Asteroid<\/u><\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>B-type asteroids are a relatively uncommon type of carbonaceous asteroid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Because of its high carbon content, the asteroid reflects about four per cent of the light that hits it, which is very low.\n<ul>\n<li>Earth reflects about 30 per cent of the light.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>There is a slight possibility that Bennu might strike the Earth in the next century, between the years 2175 and 2199.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why Bennu was Chosen as the Target Asteroid?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Bennu is a &#8220;time capsule&#8221; from the birth of the Solar System.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scientists believe that it is 4.5 billion years old<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It hasn\u2019t undergone drastic changes since its formation and, therefore, it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of the Solar System.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In particular, Bennu was selected because of the <u>availability of pristine carbonaceous material<\/u>, a key element in organic molecules necessary for life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>On September 24<sup>th<\/sup>, NASA\u2019s first asteroid samples, fetched from asteroid Bennu, were dropped by Osiris-Rex into the USA\u2019s Utah desert by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft.<\/li>\n<li>Engineers estimate the canister holds 250g of material from Bennu, plus or minus 100g.\n<ul>\n<li>It will take a few weeks to get a precise measurement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These samples carried by the OSIRIS-REx mission are important because asteroids such as Bennu can act as a &#8220;time capsule&#8221; for our solar system&#8217;s earliest history.<\/li>\n<li>The asteroid sample will help researchers learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.<\/li>\n<li>This was <strong>NASA&#8217;s third sample return from a deep-space robotic mission<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Genesis spacecraft<\/strong> dropped off bits of solar wind in 2004, but the samples were compromised when the parachute failed and the capsule slammed into the ground.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Stardust spacecraft<\/strong> successfully delivered comet dust in 2006.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>On the other hand, Osiris-Rex spacecraft is already chasing the asteroid <strong>Apophis<\/strong>, and will reach it in 2029.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) Which is the largest Asteroid?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The largest asteroid is called Ceres. It is about one-quarter the size of the moon and orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter in a region called the asteroid belt. Unlike most asteroids, Ceres is spherical in shape.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is a Meteoroid?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are distinguished as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/nasa-capsule-bearing-asteroid-sample-in-imminent-return-to-earth\/article67341459.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>NASA capsule carrying first asteroid samples lands on Earth<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2023-09-nasa-asteroid-samples-earth-spacecraft.html#:~:text=Preserved%20building%20blocks%20from%20the,said%20NASA%20Administrator%20Bill%20Nelson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>phys.org<\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OSIRIS-REx is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37518","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=37518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}