![]() Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Scientists will then collect the container and examine the dust and rocks for clues about how planets formed and life began.Īrtist’s conception of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at Bennu. Now, OSIRIS-REx is headed back to Earth! Its sample container will land in the Utah desert in September 2023. After studying Bennu for a few years, OSIRIS-REx scooped up a sample of dust and rocks from the asteroid’s surface. In 2016, NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to study an asteroid near Earth named Bennu. It orbited and studied the giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Then, the Dawn spacecraft traveled to the asteroid belt in 2011. The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft landed on Eros, an asteroid near Earth, in 2001. Several NASA space missions have also flown by and observed asteroids. Scientists can learn about asteroids by studying meteorites: tiny bits of asteroids that have flown through our atmosphere and landed on Earth’s surface. Since asteroids formed at the same time as other objects in our solar system, these space rocks can give scientists lots of information about the history of planets and the sun. In this image, you can see that asteroids come in a variety shapes and sizes. Mathilde, Gaspra, and Ida are three asteroids that have been imaged by NASA spacecraft.
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