A group of Canadian scientists is awaiting delivery of an outer space postcard from the past.
On Sept. 24, seven years after it blasted off from its Florida launch pad, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is expected to drop a capsule into the Earth's atmosphere containing matter plucked from the surface of an asteroid dating from the early history of the solar system.
"In six weeks, we took data that provided the most detailed asteroid model ever," said Michael Daly of York University's Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, who headed the team that designed the lasers. "You could see fractures and details in the rocks.It's a doable distance. It's large enough for a spacecraft to orbit — although OSIRIS set a record for the smallest orbit yet.
"The rocks comprising Bennu are from an older part of the solar system," Hildebrand said. "We get to see the whole suite without the atmospheric filter." Bennu's bits won't be the first asteroid pieces brought to Earth. Two previous Japanese missions have brought back samples.
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