From black holes to asteroids, 2019 offered us new and wonderful discoveries in space. Last year had been an extremely good one for space science and Astronomy. On the first day of January this year, two spacecraft successfully arrived at their destinations, and everything went on from there.
Moreover, this year NASA’s OSIRIS-REX spacecraft took its place in Asteroid Bennu’s Orbit. The spacecraft reached Bennu early in December, and Bennu had been considered as the smallest thing a spacecraft has ever orbited. OSIRIS-Rex has also set the world record of orbiting closest to an object, and the same spacecraft broke the same record the previous year.
The spacecraft wasn’t only spending a year orbiting around Bennu. In fact, it started studying its diamond-shaped prospect, looking for a possible area to target and to take hold of a piece of it in 2020. Once the mission has been accomplished, OSIRIS-Rex then will bring the sample to our world to undergo more in-depth studies.
From the data gathered from the craft, Bennu shows an unusual activity with its tendency to discharge something from its outside layer. Moreover, the spacecraft has also discovered an intriguing Ridge and some fascinating boulders in Bennu.
As year 2019 ended, scientists who were on the mission chose “Nightingale” as the place of landing and return site sample for the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REX is expected to continue its mission of orbiting around Bennu until the year 2021, the time it will gain a sample and come back to Earth.