in Washington D.C., marking the public debut of a rare and valuable asteroid sample. Material from asteroid Bennu could reveal new information about the origins of our solar system and how life began on Earth.. OSIRIS-REx visited the asteroid Bennu, “booped” the space rock in 2020 and grabbed a sample of its surface material. The spacecraft
The sample will be unveiled on Friday morning in the museum’s meteorite gallery in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals. The asteroid pieces will be the highlight, but visitors can also check out scale models of OSIRIS-REx and the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 rocket that blasted it into space in 2016.OSIRIS-REx stands for “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer.
OSIRIS-REx was NASA’s first attempt at an asteroid sample return mission. It’s been a smashing success despite the complexities of reaching Bennu, grabbing a sample, carrying it home, parachuting it safely down to Earth and avoiding contamination of the material in the capsule. OSIRIS-REx isn’t resting on its laurels. It’s now heading off to visit another asteroid.
If Washington, D.C. is too far away for you, then keep an eye out for future Bennu sample displays at the Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at Space Center Houston, a science museum near NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The Smithsonian Bennu sample display is a rare opportunity for the public to get a first-hand look at the tangible results of a major NASA space mission. This is just the beginning of what will be a long-term research process. “The knowledge we gain from the study of the asteroid Bennu sample will influence our scientific understanding of the solar system for generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.