Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 October 22 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download an animated gif. Tagging Bennu Image Credit: [3]OSIRIS-REx, [4]University of Arizona, [5]NASA, [6]Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio Explanation: [7]On October 20, after a [8]careful approach to the boulder-strewn surface, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's arm reached out and touched asteroid Bennu. Dubbed a [9]Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event, the 30 centimeter wide sampling head (TAGSAM) appears to crush some of the rocks in this snapshot. The close-up scene was recorded by the spacecraft's SamCam some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth, just after surface contact. One second later, the spacecraft fired nitrogen gas from a bottle intended to blow a substantial amount of [10]Bennu's regolith into the sampling head, collecting the loose surface material. Data show the spacecraft spent approximately 5 more seconds in contact with Bennu's Nightingale sample site and then performed its back-away burn. Timelapse frames from SamCam [11]reveal the aftermath. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [12]< | [13]Archive | [14]Submissions | [15]Index | [16]Search | [17]Calendar | [18]RSS | [19]Education | [20]About APOD | [21]Discuss | [22]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [23]Robert Nemiroff ([24]MTU) & [25]Jerry Bonnell ([26]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [27]Specific rights apply. [28]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC & [32]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/E_tag_aftermath.gif 3. https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex 4. https://osirisrex.arizona.edu/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/ 6. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 7. https://youtu.be/xj0O-fLSV7c 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201012.html 9. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/osiris-rex-tags-surface-of-asteroid-bennu/ 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200916.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/E_tag_aftermath.gif 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201021.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 16. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 21. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201022 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201023.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 26. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 28. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. http://www.mtu.edu/