Posted on 10/22/2020 3:54:10 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Make sure to go to the link and click on the hotlink highlighted as "Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event" for a video of the touchdown. A photo sequence is also shown in the last hotlink in the Explanation or by clicking on the image at the link.
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.
Pinging the APOD list.
Place probably hasn’t been tidied up in years.
That white and black rock to the right of the sampling head looks more like a diabase rather than a chondrite. Compare it to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabase#/media/File:Polished_Diabase.jpg This would indicate a molten origin for the rock before it cooled and was eventually smashed into fragments.
Looks like a Rumba.
“Nope Houston... Just rocks”
Gotta love the primitive stapled-on protective bootie, iy reminds me of a tour of McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis where the F-18 Hornets under assembly had duct-tape on the stabilators, etc.
Tag, you’re “It”... or counting coup...
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/osiris-rex-tags-surface-of-asteroid-bennu/
Actually, Cleveland Rocks.
You can get these rocks most anywhere on earth.
I see duct tape.....................
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