https://www.space.com/41620-osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-first-photo.html?utm_source=notification
After a nearly two-year space chase, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe finally has its asteroid target in sight.

OSIRIS-REx, which launched in September 2016, has captured its first imagery of the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) space rock Bennu, NASA officials announced today (Aug. 24).

The spacecraft snapped the photos on Aug. 17 — the same day it officially began its final approach toward Bennu — from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers).

“I can’t explain enough how much it meant for the team,” OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona, told reporters today. “I know Bennu is only a point of light here, but many of us have been working for years and years and years to get this first image down, and it really represents the beginning of the great scientific expedition that is OSIRIS-REx.”
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“It’s Bennu’s size and small mass that make the navigation challenges on this mission unprecedented, really,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx flight dynamics system manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “On December 31, when we insert into orbit, then it will become the smallest planetary object to ever be orbited by a spacecraft.

And here’s the Trump lol.

For real, the President said this to the folks on Fox and Friends yesterday, regarding his lawyer ratting him out.

“It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. I know all about flipping, 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go. It almost ought to be outlawed. It’s not fair.”

Jolly good. Be interesting to see what a water-rich asteroid looks like up close and what it consists of in detail.

Welcome back to the forum, deevs.

I think I’ve seen a better picture of Bennu than this.

Try this.

Hayabusa2 sample return capsule.

For more from Hayabusa2 from 28 Aug, including close-ups of the target markers, see http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/hayabusa2-samples-names.html

dv said:

https://www.space.com/41620-osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-first-photo.html?utm_source=notification
After a nearly two-year space chase, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe finally has its asteroid target in sight.

OSIRIS-REx, which launched in September 2016, has captured its first imagery of the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) space rock Bennu, NASA officials announced today (Aug. 24).

The spacecraft snapped the photos on Aug. 17 — the same day it officially began its final approach toward Bennu — from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers).

“I can’t explain enough how much it meant for the team,” OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona, told reporters today. “I know Bennu is only a point of light here, but many of us have been working for years and years and years to get this first image down, and it really represents the beginning of the great scientific expedition that is OSIRIS-REx.”
—-
“It’s Bennu’s size and small mass that make the navigation challenges on this mission unprecedented, really,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx flight dynamics system manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “On December 31, when we insert into orbit, then it will become the smallest planetary object to ever be orbited by a spacecraft.

New Horizons has also snapped a distant shot of its target MU69 (is that a pokemon?)

This is the original gif for Bennu.

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

https://www.space.com/41620-osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-first-photo.html?utm_source=notification
After a nearly two-year space chase, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe finally has its asteroid target in sight.

OSIRIS-REx, which launched in September 2016, has captured its first imagery of the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) space rock Bennu, NASA officials announced today (Aug. 24).

The spacecraft snapped the photos on Aug. 17 — the same day it officially began its final approach toward Bennu — from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers).

“I can’t explain enough how much it meant for the team,” OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona, told reporters today. “I know Bennu is only a point of light here, but many of us have been working for years and years and years to get this first image down, and it really represents the beginning of the great scientific expedition that is OSIRIS-REx.”
—-
“It’s Bennu’s size and small mass that make the navigation challenges on this mission unprecedented, really,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx flight dynamics system manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “On December 31, when we insert into orbit, then it will become the smallest planetary object to ever be orbited by a spacecraft.

New Horizons has also snapped a distant shot of its target MU69 (is that a pokemon?)

This is the original gif for Bennu.

So what’s moving in the gif?