OSIRIS-REx Captures Image Of Jupiter, Moons
In a search for as-yet unseen asteroids, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has taken a photo of the solar system’s largest planet and several of its satellites.
The University of Arizona mission to collect a sample from an asteroid activated one of its cameras last week to look for other asteroids believed to be orbiting Earth. Those asteroids are referred to as Trojans.
On the first day of its asteroid-search campaign, OSIRIS-Rex’s camera snapped a photo of Jupiter and three of its moons.
In a news release, NASA says the spacecraft was 419 million miles from the giant planet when the image was taken. The Trojan asteroid campaign is allowing the mission to test its camera on its journey to the asteroid Bennu.
The spacecraft is scheduled to get a sample of Bennu in 2020 and return to Earth in 2023.