Last week – after a two-year, two-billion-kilometer journey – NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at its destination: an ancient near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. OSIRIS-REx is the first spacecraft to visit Bennu and the first U.S. mission to return a sample from an asteroid to Earth. After the sample is delivered to Earth in 2023, generations of scientists will study it to help unlock the mysteries of the early Solar System. Yesterday, initial science results from the spacecraft’s close-range studies of Bennu – including the detection of water locked in the clay minerals on the asteroid – were released at the AGU fall meeting in Washington, DC.
Today (Tuesday, Dec. 11) from 3-4 pm ET (1-2 pm MT), experts from the OSIRIS-REx team will answer questions on Twitter about the mission and the discoveries we have made about Bennu so far. Use the hashtag #BennuChat on Twitter to submit your questions.
What: Experts from the OSIRIS-REx mission will answer questions about asteroid Bennu and what’s next for OSIRIS-REx
When: Tue. Dec. 11, 2018 3-4 pm ET (1-2 pm MT)
Where: Use the hashtag #BennuChat on Twitter
Who: Mission experts including:
- Dante Lauretta – OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator and Professor, University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab
- Jason Dworkin – OSIRIS-REx Project Scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
- Vicky Hamilton – OSIRIS-REx Lead Spectral Scientist and OTES Deputy Instrument Scientist, Southwest Research Institute
- Carl Hergenrother – OSIRIS-REx Astronomy Lead, University of Arizona
- Keara Burke – OSIRIS-REx Image Processing Intern and Undergraduate Student, University of Arizona