The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Nasa) has announced that its OSIRIS-REx spaceprobe has quite literally touched an asteroid. OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. Its mission is to collect dust and pebbles from the surface of an asteroid and then return the sample to Earth in 2023. The target asteroid is called Bennu, chosen because it is an ancient but well-preserved body, offering scientists information about the early Solar System, billions of years ago, when it was still forming. Bennu is currently 321-million kilometres from Earth. OSIRIS-REx, launched in September 2016, has been orbiting the asteroid since December 2018.
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