碰触贝努小行星

2020年10月22日

Tagging Bennu
Image Credit: OSIRIS-REx, University of Arizona, NASA, Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio

Explanation: On October 20, after a careful approach to the boulder-strewn surface, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s arm reached out and touched asteroid Bennu. Dubbed a Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event, the 30 centimeter wide sampling head (TAGSAM) appears to crush some of the rocks in this snapshot. The close-up scene was recorded by the spacecraft’s SamCam some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth, just after surface contact. One second later, the spacecraft fired nitrogen gas from a bottle intended to blow a substantial amount of Bennu’s regolith into the sampling head, collecting the loose surface material. Data show the spacecraft spent approximately 5 more seconds in contact with Bennu’s Nightingale sample site and then performed its back-away burn. Timelapse frames from SamCam reveal the aftermath.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space

碰触贝努小行星
影像提供: OSIRIS-REx, University of Arizona, NASA, Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio

说明: 10月20日，在战战兢兢靠近满布巨岩的表面之后，OSIRIS-REx太空船的机械臂伸出并轻触贝努小行星。在这张记录这个名为”稍触即离（TAG）”采样事件的快照里，30公分宽的采样头（TAGSAM）看来压碎了部分的岩块。这幅特写影像，是由离地球约3亿2千1百万公里远的采样相机，摄于表面接触之后。拍照的1秒之后，太空船的瓶装氮气喷出，试图扬起大量的贝努粉尘，让采样头有机会收集松散的表面物质。回传的数据显示，这艘太空船继续停留在贝努·南丁格尔取样点约5秒后，就进行远离喷发操作。在这些采样相机的定格里，可看到退离的景观。

明日的图片: pixels in space