A Nasa spacecraft descended today toward the surface of an asteroid 320 million km away to collect a handful of rubble for return to Earth. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft dropped out of orbit around asteroid Bennu right on time, beginning a 4 1/2-hour plunge to the rough, boulder-covered face of the ancient space rock. Bennu's gravity was too low for the spacecraft to land — the asteroid is just 510m across. Contact was expected to last a mere five seconds to 10 seconds, with the spacecraft quickly backing away. Today, NASA's @OSIRISREx will attempt to collect a sample of asteroid #Bennu.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 20, 2020 19:19 UTC