The launch of the mission OSIRIS-REx took place at 19:05
NASA has launched a mission OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer) asteroid Bennu, which is considered one of the most dangerous for the Earth objects. Live webcast launch was conducted on the Agency’s website.
The launch of the mission OSIRIS-REx took place at 19:05 with the help of the carrier rocket Atlas V launch site at Cape Canaveral. In 2018 it will reach its target asteroid Bennu, a fragment of which the descent capsule should fall to Earth in 2023.
In addition, the station OSIRIS-REx will study the change of the trajectory of Bennu due to thermal radiation due to the Yarkovsky effect. Astronomers also plan to create a detailed map of the asteroid and to investigate its chemical composition.
Mission OSIRIS-REx is the third and last part of the New Frontiers program, supported by NASA to study the least explored areas of the Solar system. The first New Horizons on the study of Pluto, and Juno (Jupiter Polar Orbiter), the purpose of which was to study the magnetosphere of Jupiter.
The average diameter of Bennu is equal to about 500 meters, the period of revolution around the Sun is 1.2 years. The asteroid, according to NASA, is one of the most dangerous known to man of the celestial objects closest to the planet it will be in 2135 year when it will be between the earth and the Moon at a distance of about 300 thousand kilometers from the first.
