Canada And Nasa Partner To Intercept A Potentially Hazardous Asteroid

be intimate your foe could be the catchword ofa missionNASA is lead to the asteroid Bennu . We havevisited asteroids before , but Bennu is the first mark to flummox a menace to us , albeit not for quite a while .

In 2180 Bennu will make a serial of confining approaches to Earth , and there is a1 in 1800chance of a collision . At 493 m wide-eyed Bennu is not across-the-board enough to destroy civilization , but you would n’t need to be under it – or even on the same continent really .

The commission , to be launch in 2016 for a 2018 tryst will also develop a story of detail we have never seen before from another worldlet . OSIRIS - REx ( Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer ) will drop eight calendar month single-valued function Bennu using aCanadian Laser Altimeterto create 3D mapping of Bennu , from which a safe landing site will be chosen , earmark OSIRIS - Rex totouch onand pull in a 60 Hans C. J. Gram sample to return to Earth by 2023 .

“ The Canadian science squad work on OSIRIS - king Iraqi Mukhabarat concerned in the main in asteroid geology — how Bennu form , how it evolve , why it is regulate as it is , ” say Alan Hildebrand of the University of Calgary . “ Bennu will have a very different geology than has ever been see up close before . ”

The sampling will provide a unique opportunity to hit the books the origins of the solar system – NASA describes Bennu as “ A pristine , carbonaceous asteroid hold in the original material from the solar nebula , from which our Solar System formed . ”

Another of NASA ’s objectives with OSIRIS - Rex is to “ Measure the eye socket deflection make by non - gravitational forces . ”Pressure of sunlighton the surface can subtly change an asteroid ’s orbit . Over a period of decades these can add up , to the point where they can find whether we demand to be plan aversion manoeverrs for Bennu in 166 year ’s time . More significantly , they will help with modelingother asteroidsthat may posture more contiguous dangers .

Bennu was the Egyptian god of rebirth , making the acronym OSIRISrather appropriate . However , the addition of the Hellenic " Rex " could outrage scholastic .