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The OSIRIS - king military mission is en route back from asteroidBennu , carry a sample distribution scientists hope will reveal secret about the early days of the solar system . NASA launch the OSIRIS - REx ( Origins , Spectral Interpretation , Resource Identification , Security - Regolith Explorer ) mission in 2016 , hoping to learn more about this challenging and potentially dangerous asteroid . In recent twelvemonth , NASA has launched several military mission to various asteroid , all of which hope to give away new selective information about Earth ’s origins , imagination descent , and how to debar potentially catastrophic collision with our planet .
Asteroids have been of interest for many grounds , but partly because of their similarities to planets . Asteroids orbit the sun like major planet and have many of the same component constituent as planets . significantly , too , asteroids are artifacts of the early solar day of the solar arrangement and can function as clip abridgement of sorting . Regardless of these similarities , however , asteroid can be vastly different . The three all-inclusive theme classes of asteroids are 100 - eccentric ( made of Henry Clay and silicate rocks ) , S - type ( stony and made mostly of silicate stuff and nickel - atomic number 26 ) , and M - types ( metallic ) . Finally , Psyche , an M - class asteroid , is believed to contain heavy metals deserving perhaps as much as $ 10 quintillion .
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consort to theOSIRIS - REx squad , Bennu is a B - type asteroid — a rare subclassification of C - types — which passes nearby Earth every six years . vitamin B complex - type asteroid are primitive and carbon - rich , and experts believe they have been comparatively unaltered since their shaping . Bennu is believed to have formed 4.5 billion year ago at more or less the same time as Earth and has nearly identical construction block . Bennu may have organic molecule that stay unpolluted by Earth ’s surroundings ( unlike similarly primitive meteorites that fall to Earth ) and which have been unaffected by world processes ( like the acute pressure and heat that is part and parcel of planetal constitution ) . Muchlike NASA ’s Lucy foreign mission , the sample collected on Bennu may earmark scientists to hit the books the materials that gave rise to life on Earth in something closely resembling their original state .
One Of The Most Hazardous Asteroids
While Bennu may teach scientists about the ancestry of Earth , it also poses a significant threat to our planet . The odds of Bennu jar with Earth over the next 300 years are one in 1,750 , which puts Bennu in the top - two most hazardous known objects in our solar organisation . Of course , there ’s no pauperization to panic , asThe Harvard Gazettereports that statisticians equate those odds to flipping a coin and having it come up head 11 consecutive times , but experts are organize backup plan just in casing . WhileBennu is unlikely to cause total terrestrial extinction , it would cause a great deal of destruction if it did come to Earth . Current estimates suggest the most probable daytime of impact is Sept. 24 , 2182 , though that day of the month will be updated and mayhap revised as it approaches . The OSIRIS - REx squad ’s data will help experts translate how practiced to redirect the asteroid ’s path should interposition be necessary to void that being a awful 24-hour interval .
OSIRIS - RExis now speeding toward Earth with its sample , which it is expected to deliver on Sept. 24 , 2023 . After landing at the Utah Test and Training Range , the sample will be commit to NASA ’s Johnson Space Center to be process and divided . Internationalscientists will then receive material from Bennuto commence analysis . In the lag , experts hope the cargo completes its journeying safely and look its comer with bated intimation .
Sources : OSIRIS - REx Team , The Harvard Gazette
Credit: United Launch Alliance
