09/13/2016 – Ephemeris

Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 13th.  The Sun will rise at 7:19.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 7:56.  The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 4:40 tomorrow morning.

Last Thursday evening an Atlas V rocket lifted off with NASA’s only interplanetary mission this year.  The spacecraft called by one of NASA’s tortured acronyms OSIRIS-Rex is on its way to the asteroid Bennu, which was discovered in 1999, and named by a 3rd grader in a contest.  Bennu is an Egyptian deity resembling a heron and also resembling the spacecraft.  OSIRIS-Rex will take two years to reach the small asteroid, orbit it for two years mapping it in great detail and will approach to retrieve a sample.  It will take 3 years to return the sample to the Earth in 2023.  Bennu is interesting because it contains organic compounds from the origin of the solar system and because of the tiny chance it could hit the Earth in 200 years or so.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with its sampler boom extended.