File:First view of OSIRIS-REx returning with asteroid sample ESA25096249.png
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Summary
DescriptionFirst view of OSIRIS-REx returning with asteroid sample ESA25096249.png |
English: Is it a spacecraft? An asteroid? Well, both. This small central speck is the first image of a spacecraft on its way home, carrying with it a sample from an asteroid hundreds-of-millions, if-not-billions-of-years old. The spacecraft is NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the asteroid is Bennu. On Sunday 24 September, the mission will drop its rocky sample off to fall through Earth’s atmosphere and land safely back home, before it continues on to study the once rather scary asteroid Apophis. Spotted on 16 September by ESA’s Optical Ground Station (OGS) telescope in Tenerife, OSIRIS-REx was 4.66 million km from Earth. This image is a combination of 90 individual images, each 36-second exposures. They have been combined in a way that takes into account the motion of the spacecraft, which is not travelling in a straight line, causing the seemingly stretched background stars to curve and warp. ESA’s 1-metre OGS telescope was originally built to observe space debris in orbit and test laser communication technologies, but since broadened its horizons to also conduct surveys and follow-up observations of near-Earth asteroids and make night-time astronomy observations and has even discovered dozens of minor planets. For this observation, ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC) took over the reins, directing it at the returning asteroid explorer. The NEOCC, part of the Agency’s Planetary Defence Office, is a little like Europe’s asteroid sorting hat; the centre and its experts are scanning the skies for risky space rocks, computing their orbits and calculating their risk of impact. From our small but mighty Space Safety telescope, we say ‘Hello, OSIRIS-REx, good luck NASA and welcome safely to Earth, asteroid Bennu!’. (Read all about ESA’s Hera mission that launches next year to examine the first test of asteroid deflection, the first mission to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system.) |
Date | 21 September 2023 (upload date) |
Source | First view of OSIRIS-REx returning with asteroid sample |
Author | European Space Agency |
Activity InfoField | Operations |
Licensing
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This media was created by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Where expressly so stated, images or videos are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence, ESA being an Intergovernmental Organisation (IGO), as defined by the CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO licence. The user is allowed under the terms and conditions of the CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO license to Reproduce, Distribute and Publicly Perform the ESA images and videos released under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO licence and the Adaptations thereof, without further explicit permission being necessary, for as long as the user complies with the conditions and restrictions set forth in the CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO licence, these including that:
See the ESA Creative Commons copyright notice for complete information, and this article for additional details.
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Captions
Is it a spacecraft? An asteroid? Well, both. This small central speck is the first image of a spacecraft on its way home, carrying with it a sample from an asteroid hundreds-of-millions, if-not-billions-of-years old.
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768 pixel
68,328 byte
ee3f04878611b1c362f7d6c598d559432580618d
21 September 2023
1d9x5gb9plf3sceqsp76yqp66zjanvya4djjjx5l7yec2fo9hh
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Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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current | 11:49, 29 October 2023 | ![]() | 768 × 768 (67 KB) | OptimusPrimeBot | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2023/09/first_view_of_osiris-rex_returning_with_asteroid_sample/25096238-1-eng-GB/First_view_of_OSIRIS-REx_returning_with_asteroid_sample.png via Commons:Spacemedia |
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Metadata
This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.
If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.
Software used | Adobe Photoshop 24.6 (Windows) |
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Date and time of digitizing | 12:28, 19 September 2023 |
File change date and time | 12:41, 19 September 2023 |
Date metadata was last modified | 12:41, 19 September 2023 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:c60591f2-6c85-6947-9647-2cb54dfc7d4e |
Horizontal resolution | 37.8 dpc |
Vertical resolution | 37.8 dpc |