NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft captured gorgeous new pictures of Earth lately because it whipped previous the planet throughout a high-speed slingshot maneuver, sending the probe on a quick observe towards the well-known asteroid Apophis.
The pictures showcase Earth in hanging element throughout a flyby on Sept. 23 when OSIRIS-APEX — brief for “Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Useful resource Identification and Safety-Apophis Explorer” — flew simply 2,136 miles (3,438 kilometers) above the planet throughout its closest strategy.
OSIRIS-APEX is the second section of OSIRIS-REx, the mission that returned a pattern from the near-asteroid (NEA) Bennu in 2023. After that historic journey, NASA charted a brand new course towards Apophis, a stony metal-rich NEA that provides a pointy scientific distinction to Bennu’s carbon-rich composition (and was as soon as thought to pose a critical affect danger to Earth). The latest pictures from OSIRIS-APEX mark an early milestone, confirming that its cameras and devices are totally operational after years in deep house, and that the spacecraft is on target for its interplanetary journey.
The September flyby was designed to make use of Earth’s gravity to spice up OSIRIS-APEX’s velocity and redirect it towards Apophis, which can swing previous Earth on April 13, 2029. That encounter will deliver the asteroid closer than many satellites — close enough for Earth’s tidal forces to potentially reshape the asteroid’s surface, alter its spin or even shift its orbit. OSIRIS-APEX is scheduled to arrive shortly thereafter, making it the first mission to document how an asteroid responds to a close planetary pass, according to the University of Arizona’s mission overview web page.
As soon as in orbit round Apophis, the spacecraft will spend roughly 18 months mapping the asteroid, finding out its composition and capturing high-resolution imagery. Mission planners additionally hope to hover just a few meters above the floor and hearth the probe’s thrusters downward to fire up mud and reveal contemporary beforehand hidden materials.
The newly launched Earth pictures had been captured utilizing the spacecraft’s MapCam imager, which options purple, inexperienced and blue filters, in addition to StowCam, which is able to each nonetheless and video imagery to confirm secure storage of collected asteroid samples.
Because the mission continues, OSIRIS-APEX will ship again trajectory updates, carry out extra instrument checks and finally ship the primary up-close views of Apophis — a near-Earth asteroid whose shut encounter with our planet might educate scientists extra about how such our bodies evolve and reply to gravitational forces.
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