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. 2023 September 21 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download and animated gif. Tagging Bennu Image Credit: [3]OSIRIS-REx, [4]University of Arizona, [5]NASA, [6]Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio Explanation: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's arm reached out and touched asteroid 101955 Bennu [7]on October 20, 2020, after a [8]careful approach to the small, near-Earth asteroid's boulder-strewn surface. 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 close-up recorded by the spacecraft's SamCam. The image was snapped just after surface contact some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth. 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 [11]loose surface material. And now, nearly three years later, on Sunday, September 24, that sample of asteroid Bennu is scheduled to [12]arrive on planet Earth. The sample return capsule will be [13]dropped off by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft as it makes a close flyby of Earth. Twenty minutes after the drop-off, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters to divert past Earth and continue on to orbit near-Earth [14]asteroid 99942 Apophis. Tomorrow's picture: reflections of the cosmos __________________________________________________________________ [15]< | [16]Archive | [17]Submissions | [18]Index | [19]Search | [20]Calendar | [21]RSS | [22]Education | [23]About APOD | [24]Discuss | [25]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [26]Robert Nemiroff ([27]MTU) & [28]Jerry Bonnell ([29]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [30]Specific rights apply. [31]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC, [35]NASA Science Activation & [36]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2309/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://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-completes-last-osiris-rex-test-before-asteroid-sample-delivery 13. https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/09/08/heres-how-sept-24-asteroid-sample-delivery-will-work/ 14. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/apophis/in-depth/ 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230920.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 19. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 24. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230921 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230922.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 29. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 31. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 35. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 36. http://www.mtu.edu/