The
doomsday asteroid which has a high probability of impacting Earth in one
hundred years’ time will appear to the right of the planet Mars. If it collided
with our home planet, the rock would release 80,000 times more energy than the
Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. Bennu is one of the most potentially hazardous
asteroids in close proximity to the Earth, yet it may shed light on the origins
of life on our blue planet.
Currently,
it is the subject of a NASA mission as the spacecraft Osiris-REx has moved into
orbit around it.
Osiris-REx
will prepare to land a collection device to return a sample of the primordial
surface to Earth for signs of organic compounds.
It
was likely formed in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, but now
has drifted much closer to Earth.
Because
its materials have not changed for billions of years, Bennu may contain organic
molecules similar to those that started life on Earth.
OSIRIS-REx’s
first orbit marks a leap for humankind.
Never
before has a spacecraft from Earth circled so close to such a small space
object one with barely enough gravity to keep a vehicle in a stable orbit.
At
around 500 metres across, Bennu is the smallest object ever orbited by a
spacecraft.
The
OSIRIS-REx acronym comes from the spacecraft's mission paralleling the
mythology behind the Egyptian god Osiris.
Learn
more here.