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10/29/2020 – Ephemeris – A look at Bennu the asteroid
This is Ephemeris for Thursday, October 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 6:34, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:18. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 7:06 tomorrow morning.
Tonight we will have Mars appearing above the bright gibbous Moon in the evening sky. Out in space NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is still in the vicinity of the tiny asteroid Bennu. The asteroid is about 60 percent the distance between the Earth’s and Mars’ orbits, but on the far side of the Sun from us. This is why it will take 3 years to return the sample to the Earth. Bennu is small, only 743 feet (226.5 meters) in diameter. And is a rubble pile asteroid with lots of empty voids between the rocks. The sampler instead of stopping at the surface, punched into the asteroid surface a bit. Bennu was picked because is a potential hazardous asteroid and is a particularly primitive type of asteroid.
The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Inner Solar when OSIRIS REx took its sample from Bennu. Bennu’s official designation is 101955 Bennu. The number designation is the consecutive number it is given when placed on the official list of asteroids and dwarf planets when its orbit is determined. Notice that it was on the other side of the Sun. Credit NASA’s Eyes app.
The asteroid Bennu is 743 feet (226.5 meters) in diameter. It is a carbonaceous asteroid. OSIRIS-REX has already discovered water bearing clays on its surface. Credit NASA
10/27/2020 – Ephemeris – NASA’s cup runneth over with asteroid bits
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 6:37, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:16. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:04 tomorrow morning.
One week ago the NASA’s OSIRIS Rex spacecraft unfolded its sampling arm, and folded up it solar panels so as to look like a one legged stork landing and touched a small level patch of small jagged rocks on the tiny asteroid Bennu. A nitrogen bottle was triggered to blow soil and small rocks into a cylindrical container which created quite a blizzard of small rocks. A flap on the collection device was supposed to close, keeping the collected bits in, but was propped open by a large rock, so some of the contents started to leak out. Now flight controllers must gently maneuver the collector into the return canister without losing too much of the contents. The sample canister is expected to return to Earth in 2023.
The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Artist depiction OSIRIS-REx TAG (Touch and Go) from video. Credit NASA.
Animated GIF of the actual sample collection TAG (Touch and Go). Credit NASA.
For more information go to https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex
10/15/2018 – Ephemeris – The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 is exploring the asteroid Ryugu.
Ephemeris for Monday, October 15th. The Sun will rise at 7:58. It’ll be up for 11 hours even, setting at 6:58. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:43 this evening.
The Japanese asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa2 is in the midst of operations at the near-earth asteroid Ryugu. It dropped three rovers that hopped across its surface and later this month will take the first of three samples. Hayabusa means peregrine falcon in Japanese. It will stay at the asteroid until late next year, it then will make a year-long trip back to the Earth, landing in the Outback of Australia. NASA’s own OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission is currently approaching the near-earth asteroid Bennu. It will orbit the asteroid for over a year and can make up to three attempts to take a sample of the asteroid for return to Earth. It is to land at the Utah Test and Training Range in September of 2023.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
10/03/2017 – Ephemeris – OSIRIS-REx and the asteroid Bennu
Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 3rd. The Sun will rise at 7:43. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 35 minutes, setting at 7:18. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:11 tomorrow morning.
Eleven days ago, on September 22nd, a small spacecraft named OSIRIS-REx zipped past the Earth to gain speed and alter the inclination of its solar orbit to reach the asteroid Bennu late next year. Bennu is rated as a potentially hazardous asteroid, with a tiny chance of colliding with the Earth late in the next century.
Discovered in 1999, and named by a 9-year-old boy in a contest run by the Planetary Society after an Egyptian god who is depicted as a heron, because the spacecraft kinda looked like one. It is a carbonaceous asteroid, containing very primitive material from the dawn of the solar system. OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of the asteroid and return it to the Earth in 2023 if all goes well. The Earth pass also allowed it to calibrate its instruments.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Artist’s conception of OSIRIS-REx about to collect a sample from asteroid Bennu. Image Credit:
NASA/Goddard/Chris Meaney
OSIRIS-REx observes the Earth. Here is the Pacific Ocean with Australia at the lower left, and the western US and Baja California at the upper right. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona
NASA’s caption: A color composite image of Earth taken on Sept. 22 by the MapCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. This image was taken just hours after the spacecraft completed its Earth Gravity Assist at a range of approximately 106,000 miles (170,000 kilometers). MapCam is part of the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) operated by the University of Arizona. Visible in this image are the Pacific Ocean and several familiar landmasses, including Australia in the lower left, and Baja California and the southwestern United States in the upper right. The dark vertical streaks at the top of the image are caused by short exposure times (less than three milliseconds). Short exposure times are required for imaging an object as bright as Earth, but are not anticipated for an object as dark as the asteroid Bennu, which the camera was designed to image.
05/12/2014 – Ephemeris – NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to an asteroid
Ephemeris for Monday, May 12th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 9:00. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:37 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:16.
Construction is beginning on a spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx, which is slated to be launched in September of 2016 to reach asteroid Bennu in 2018 and retrieve a 2 or so ounce sample and return it in 2023. It is important to discover the physical features of near earth asteroids or NEOs, and so learn how best to deflect them, or even mine them for resources. If you’d like your name to ride along on the spacecraft to orbit the Sun forever, well for several billion years; and be apart of the return capsule, which will probably reside at the Smithsonian at the end of its travels, go to the Planetary Society website at http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/bennu/, and sign up yourself and your family. Be part of space history.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Mission webpage: http://www.asteroidmission.org/
NASA mission page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/#.U3Br1HbDuBw
Artist’s conception of OSIRIS-REx about to collect a sample from asteroid Bennu. Image Credit:
NASA/Goddard/Chris Meaney
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 