ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 19 April. Click Here for more information.
ForumIAS Answer Writing Focus Group (AWFG) for Mains 2024 commencing from 24th June 2024. The Entrance Test for the program will be held on 28th April 2024 at 9 AM. To know more about the program visit: https://forumias.com/blog/awfg2024
News: OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully touched an asteroid Bennu to collect dust and pebbles from the surface for delivery to Earth.
Facts:
- OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission.
- Aim: To travel to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu and bring a small sample back to Earth for study by 2023.
- Significance: The material returned is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, its initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life on Earth.
- Uniqueness of mission: If successful, OSIRIS-REx will be the first United States spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.
