Space & Astronomy

9+ hour, 6+ min ago   (390+ words) NOAA issued an Aurora watch for 09 Oct, when a CME is expected to arrive and bring G1 (Minor) to G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storms. The forecast ties that timing to Active Region 4549, where an M1.4 flare on 06 Oct was associated with the eruption. The…...

9+ min ago   (323+ words) This image of Bennu was taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a distance of around 50 miles. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at its destination, asteroid Bennu, on Dec. 3. Led by the University of Arizona, the OSIRIS-REx mission is the first NASA…...

9+ min ago   (689+ words) It's 5 o'clock somewhere. And while here on Earth, "happy hour" is commonly associated with winding down and the optional cold beverage, that's when things get going on Bennu, the destination asteroid of the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx NASA mission. In…...

9+ min ago   (762+ words) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An Atlas V rocket, a candle burning brightly in the evening sky trailed by a thick plume of white smoke, successfully launched the latest chapter in the University of Arizona's rich history of planetary science Thursday from…...

48+ min ago   (138+ words) This image shows sample site Nightingale, OSIRIS-REx’s primary sample collection site on asteroid Bennu. The image is overlaid with a graphic of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to illustrate the scale of the site. After a year scoping out asteroid Bennu’s boulder-scattered…...

9+ min ago   (246+ words) Scheduled for launch in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx mission will return the first samples ever taken from a special type of asteroid holding clues to the origin of the solar system and likely organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth....

9+ min ago   (631+ words) Scientists now know much more about the material NASA's first asteroid sample return mission will be collecting in just a few weeks. In a special collection of six papers published today in the journals Science and Science Advances, scientists with…...

9+ min ago   (792+ words) Soon after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft blasts into the sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida, in September 2016 and glides through space while Earth is shrinking to a mere dot in the black void, it will rely on a sophisticated set of electronic…...

1+ hour, 7+ min ago   (600+ words) A microscope image of a dark Bennu particle, about a millimeter long, with a crust of bright phosphate. To the right is a smaller fragment that broke off. From Lauretta & Connolly et al. (2024) Meteoritics & Planetary Science A deep dive into…...

9+ min ago   (504+ words) OSIRIS-REx mission scientists thought sampling a piece of Bennu would be like a walk on the beach, but the surprisingly craggy surface proved to be more of a challenge. Scientists thought asteroid Bennu's surface would be like a sandy beach,…...