Mission managers chose Bennu in part because it appears to be laden with the types of carbon molecules that may have provided the building blocks of life on Earth. OSIRIS-REX’s observations also enabled calculations of the small forces imparted on Bennu caused by the heating and cooling of the surface. This let them improve the estimate of Bennu’s position in 2135 by a factor of 20. Farnocchia and his colleagues were able to precisely pin down the asteroid’s orbit. When the spacecraft was in orbit around Bennu, Dr. The spacecraft left Bennu three months ago and is now headed back toward Earth to drop off samples of rock and dirt it collected from the asteroid for detailed laboratory study by scientists. The improved probabilities come courtesy of NASA’s OSIRIS-REX spacecraft, which spent two years studying Bennu up close.
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