Here is a nice recap of the OSIRIS-REx mission and a preview of the events that will take place on Sunday morning EDT.

https://youtu.be/O8R2hsoIgTc
#OSIRISREX #Bennu
2/n

The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will swing past Earth after releasing the capsule. The mission will be renamed OSIRIS-APEX ('APophis EXplorer'). OSIRIS-APEX will go on to rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid (and potentially hazardous object) 99942 Apophis in April 2029.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/apophis/in-depth/
#OSIRISREX #Apophis
3/n

Bennu vs Apophis, both from Egyptian mythology.

Bennu was an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the Sun, creation, and rebirth.
Apophis was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied darkness and disorder.

Both asteroids have near-Earth orbits and are potentially hazardous objects (PHOs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep
#OSIRISREX #Bennu #Apophis
4/n

The various surface features on Bennu are named (by the International Astronomical Union) after birds and bird-like creatures in mythology.

The asteroid’s surface features include craters, dorsa (peaks or ridges), fossae (grooves or trenches) and saxa (rocks and boulders).

How many of the names shown on the map below can you recognize?

https://www.asteroidmission.org/iau-features-3/
Decoder ring at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu and https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/SearchResults (select Advanced Search and then Bennu).
#OSIRISREX #Bennu
5/n

Here is a zoom-in and closer look at the sample collection site named Nightingale located within the Hokioi crater on asteroid Bennu.

OSIRIS-REx touched down and collected the regolith sample in a dramatic operation on October 20, 2020.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ac5597
#OSIRISREX #Bennu
6/n

At 13:35 EDT (17:35 UTC), OSIRIS-REx is 500,000 km away from Earth. Another 21:20 hours to go before the capsule with regolith samples from asteroid Bennu lands on Earth.

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_osiris_rex/distance?time=2023-09-23T17:35:00.000+00:00&rate=0&to=earth
#OSIRISREX #Bennu
8/n

Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid with an orbit that brings it to the proximity of earth's orbit.

It has a 1-in-1750 probability of impacting Earth between 2178 and 2290 with the highest risk on Sept 24, 2182.

Size: 565 m × 535 m
Mass: 73 billion kg
Aphelion: 1.3559 AU
Perihelion: 0.89689 AU

It's orbit shifts by tiny amounts every year due to gravitational effects and due to something known as the Yarkovsky effect.

https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=bennu&view=VOP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu#Photometry_and_spectroscopy
#OSIRISREX #Bennu
9/n