WEBVTT

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[music playing]

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- A long time ago...

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[dramatic fanfare]

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No, not in a galaxy
far, far away,

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but here in our own
Milky Way galaxy,

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and even closer to home
right here in our solar system,

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there's an asteroid
named Bennu

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that's close enough
to Earth to visit.

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[music playing]

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We learned that there are
thousands of asteroids

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in our solar system,

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some that can be classified
as Near-Earth Objects.

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So NASA planned
a close encounter

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with one of those objects.

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Let's find out
more about the mission.

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- The OSIRIS-REx mission

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is NASA's first
asteroid sample return mission.

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The mission launched
from Florida,

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spent a couple years traveling

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to meet up with the orbit
of Asteroid Bennu.

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We get to the asteroid
and we map it.

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We want to learn
everything we can

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to really pick out
the best sampling spot.

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Once we've got a spot,

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we then drop down
to the asteroid.

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We've got a long arm,

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basically looks like
a Pogo stick

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with a filter on the end.

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And we come down
onto the asteroid

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and just basically
slowly bounce off the surface.

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At that moment,
we fire nitrogen gas

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which fluidizes the regolith

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and gets it trapped
into our round filter.

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And then that filter is stowed

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inside
the sample return capsule,

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where it's kept safe.

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So this is a pristine sample
of an asteroid,

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something that we don't
currently have

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in our meteorite collection.

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So this is really exciting.

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We get the sample
stowed and sealed

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in the sample return capsule.

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And then we come home,
which takes about two years.

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And we ultimately release
the SRC.

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It survives a fiery entry
through Earth's atmosphere

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and lands in the Utah desert,

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where it will be
collected and analyzed

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by scientists
around the world.

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- Okay, time for a close-up.

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NASA grabs a piece
of an asteroid,

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and sends it back to Earth
for scientists to study.

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But what could they possibly
learn from an asteroid?

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- So one of the great things
about Asteroid Bennu

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is it's a primitive asteroid.

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And as such, because
it's so old and ancient,

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it's really
a frozen time capsule

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from the earliest stages
of the solar system.

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So we're hoping to learn

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by the analysis of samples
from Bennu

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how the solar system formed,

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how the planets formed,

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how asteroids themselves
formed,

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and the timing,
solar system chronology,

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the events that led to
the formation

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of our solar system
as we know it today.

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- Talk about an
out-of-this-world encounter.

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With so many asteroids
to choose from,

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why did NASA pick Bennu?

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- So there are several reasons

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why NASA chose Asteroid Bennu

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as the target for

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its first asteroid
sample return mission.

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The first is it has an orbit

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that's very similar
to the Earth's,

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so it's easy to get to.

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The second reason
is it's large enough

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so it's about 500 meters,

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where it's not
spinning very fast.

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So the smaller asteroids,

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those less than
about 140 meters,

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spin really fast
and they're hard to sample.

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So Bennu,
although it's spinning,

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it's not a fast rotator.

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And then the third reason is

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it's a dark, carbon-rich
asteroid.

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So we think, with Bennu,
we're really gonna learn about

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not only early
solar system formation,

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but also the potential origin

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of the building blocks
of life.

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So this is really
an exciting time

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for astrobiology and
asteroid science in general.

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- The same from Bennu
will be studied by scientists

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for years to come, making

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OSIRIS-REx's seven-year mission
worth the wait.

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Who knows,
maybe you'll get a chance

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to study it yourself.

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For "Real World," I'm Mishay.

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See you next time.

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