OSIRIS-REx Slings Orbital Web Around Asteroid to Capture Sample - 4K

Watch in stunning 4K as NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft slings an orbital web around the asteroid Bennu in preparation for collecting a sample!

This incredible video shows how OSIRIS-Rex uses its thrusters to create a series of small, controlled collisions with the asteroid's surface, creating a web of dust and debris. This web helps to slow down the spacecraft and keep it in a stable orbit around Bennu.

Once the spacecraft is in a stable orbit, it will use its robotic arm to extend a sampling head towards the asteroid. The sampling head will use a burst of compressed nitrogen gas to blast away a small piece of Bennu's surface, which will be collected in a sample return capsule. The sample return capsule will then be jettisoned from the spacecraft and return to Earth in 2023.

The samples that OSIRIS-Rex collects from Bennu will provide scientists with a unique opportunity to study the composition and history of an asteroid. This information will help us to better understand the early solar system and the origins of life on Earth.