Touching an Asteroid: The Science Behind NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft, launching tomorrow (Sept. 8), will explore the asteroid Bennu, searching for traces of the material that helped to build the sun and the early planets. Eventually, the spacecraft will return to Earth with a sample of the asteroid for scientists to analyze in exquisite depth. "Sample return is really at the forefront of scientific exploration," OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dant