OSIRIS-REx swoops over sample site Nightingale
Thursday, March 5, 2020 - 09:30
in Astronomy & Space
NASA's first asteroid-sampling spacecraft just got its best look yet at asteroid Bennu. Yesterday, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft executed a very low pass over sample site Nightingale, taking observations from an altitude of 820 feet (250 m), which is the closest that OSIRIS-REx has flown over the asteroid so far. Nightingale, OSIRIS-REx's primary sample collection site, is located within a crater in Bennu's northern hemisphere.