Skip to footer

Bennu bound: NASA readies for historic mission to study an asteroid

In September, NASA will launch a probe to collect a sample of rock from an asteroid known as Bennu. 

|
Courtesy of NASA
This artist's concept shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft approaching the asteroid Bennu. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and bring at least a 60-gram (2.1-ounce) sample back to Earth for study.

The same asteroid that could provide NASA with information on how life in the solar system began could, say some cosmos gazers, someday cause the end of life on Earth as we know it. 

But we have about 1.5 centuries to prepare for that doomsday scenario. 

In the meantime, NASA plans to launch the unmanned OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in September to collect rock sample from an asteroid known as "Bennu," chosen by scientists for its carbon-rich surface. Once the craft reaches the asteroid in August 2018, OSIRIS-REx will send a probe to vacuum up gravel and soil from Bennu's surface. 

As The Christian Science Monitor's Lonnie Shektman reported in February: 

Bennu is made of molecules containing primarily carbon and hydrogen atoms, fundamental components of life on Earth. By analyzing this organic material collected on Bennu, scientists will be able to study the materials that may have had a role in the origin of life and have since been very well preserved.

Scientists say that along with offering possible information about how life began on Earth, the samples could potentially bring us closer to knowing whether life has ever existed on Mars or Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. 

"We believe Bennu is a time capsule from the very beginnings of our solar system," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission, to ABC News. "So the sample can potentially hold answers to the most fundamental questions human beings ask, like 'Where do we come from?'"

Along with collecting rock samples, OSIRIS-REx will map every detail of the asteroid.

"We need to know everything about Bennu — its size, mass and composition," said Dr. Lauretta to the Times of London. "This could be vital data for future generations."

But the special interest astronomers have taken in Bennu isn't only due to its potential to better their understanding of the solar system. They say there's also a chance the asteroid could crash into the Earth someday. 

Bennu crosses Earth's orbit every six years, growing closer each time. In 2135, the asteroid may enter a "keyhole" between the Earth and the Moon, an event that would "tweak Bennu's orbit, potentially putting it on course for the Earth later that century," Lauretta told the Times. 

But while the potential impact is huge, the chances of such an event actually happening are not: Bennu has a 1 in 2,700 chance of hitting Earth, ABC News reports. 

Furthermore, the collision wouldn't happen until 2175 or 2196. By that time, scientists would likely have the technology to destroy the asteroid before it could hit, Lauretta says. 

In other words, "Don't buy asteroid insurance." 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Bennu bound: NASA readies for historic mission to study an asteroid
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0801/Bennu-bound-NASA-readies-for-historic-mission-to-study-an-asteroid
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe