NASA spacecraft leaves a mess on a rocky asteroid during it's final mission, watch video

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft left its mark on an asteroid when it attempted to grab a sample last year for its return to Earth. New pictures released by NASA on April 15 revealed the mess made by Osiris-Rex spacecraft while making the one last flyby of asteroid Bennu on April 7 to take pictures of the disturbances made by sample collection in October 2020. As per the pictures and videos released by the US space agency, an evident depression is visible where the NASA spacecraft penetrated the asteroid’s surface. 

As per the official NASA statement, boulders were hurled by the pressurized nitrogen gas that was fired at the ground in order to dig out the sample for vacuuming by Osiris-Rex spacecraft’s getaway thruster. One 1-ton boulder was flung an estimated 40 feet or 12 metres. The NASA spacecraft’s team meticulously plotted its final flyby in order to get the perfect snapshots of the aftermath and spot the changes on Bennu’s rocky surface. 

NASA said in a statement, “Comparing the two images reveals obvious signs of surface disturbance. At the sample collection point, there appears to be a depression, with several large boulders evident at the bottom, suggesting that they were exposed by sampling."

"There is a noticeable increase in the amount of highly reflective material near the TAG point against the generally dark background of the surface, and many rocks were moved around,” it added.

Observations were not in the original plan

Dathon Golish, a member of the OSIRIS-REx image processing working group, headquartered at the University of Arizona said in a statement that the observations were not in the “original mission plan.” Golish said, “Bennu is rough and rocky, so if you look at it from a different angle or capture it at a time when the sun is not directly overhead, that dramatically changes what the surface looks like...These images were deliberately taken close to noon, with the Sun shining straight down, when there's not as many shadows."

"These observations were not in the original mission plan, so we were excited to go back and document what we did," Golish said. "The team really pulled together for this one last hurrah."

Image credits: Twitter/@OSIRISREx/@NASASolarSystem