Tag Archives: Asteroid Bennu

With the success of the OISRIS-Rex mission to asteroid Bennu, and with scientists studying the samples that were returned, the spacecraft has a new mission as OSIRIS-APEX, and Canada has a role to play.

A haul of precious asteroid material, including some bound for Canada, was unveiled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center via livestream today (Oct. 11).

It was scripted to happen this way, but when it did what it was supposed to do, ground controllers and scientists elation was clearly evident. What had just happened? A spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, had just “touched” down, albeit it for seconds, on asteroid Bennu, grabbed a bunch of “dust and pebbles,” and taken off again with its prize. It lasted mere seconds, yet took years to …

Just days ahead of a spacecraft landing on Bennu, a newly released model of the asteroid shows a complex history – including the fact that its surface regolith might have expanded and contracted at least once.

The NASA led OSIRIS-REx mission is exceeding scientists expectations and now they have to make the difficult decision of where to land the spacecraft from four candidate sites on asteroid Bennu to collect samples.

Before the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in orbit around asteroid Bennu can take a sample from the surface it needs to be mapped. That’s where Canada’s OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) comes in.

Canada is participating in the NASA led OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu. In early December the spacecraft went into orbit around the asteroid. Why are we participating in this mission?

The first results are in from the OSIRIS-REx mission and they couldn’t please researchers more. Asteroid Bennu is everything they had hoped it would be based on the data obtained so far. It also has provided a few surprises.

In an ongoing Canadian Science in Space video series, the Canadian Space Agency’s Tim Haltigin explains what are asteroids and why do we study them?

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is celebrating World Space Week by holding a series of lectures including this one on the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu.