Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

Osiris-Rex: Chasing Asteroid Bennu – Out There

Watch more with these video collections:

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx space vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral on September 8, 2016, riding an Atlas V rocket into a seven year long mission to map the asteroid Bennu and the bring a sample of it back to Earth. From AstroidMission.org:

OSIRIS-REx seeks answers to the questions that are central to the human experience: Where did we come from? What is our destiny? Asteroids, the leftover debris from the solar system formation process, can answer these questions and teach us about the history of the sun and planets.

Bennu Osiris Rex Mission

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is traveling to Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid whose regolith may record the earliest history of our solar system. Bennu may contain the molecular precursors to the origin of life and the Earth’s oceans. Bennu is also one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids, as it has a relatively high probability of impacting the Earth late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx will determine Bennu’s physical and chemical properties, which will be critical to know in the event of an impact mitigation mission. Finally, asteroids like Bennu contain natural resources such as water, organics, and precious metals. In the future, these asteroids may one day fuel the exploration of the solar system by robotic and manned spacecraft.

Get a closer look at its path to Bennu and back in this New York Times feature, a complement to the Out There NYT video above.

Plus, watch the launch below:


Related link: How NASA Studies and Tracks Asteroids Near and Far.

Follow this vid with:
• Space Rocks: Comets, asteroids, meteors, & meteorites
ESA’s Incredible Adventures of the Hera Asteroid Mission
• Did an asteroid kill the dinosaurs?

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

What have we found while looking for another Earth?

Rion Nakaya

We Are Dead Stars. Dr. Michelle Thaller explains.

Rion Nakaya

Wanderers: Humanity’s Future Expansion into the Solar System

Rion Nakaya

This Is A Film About The James Webb Space Telescope

Rion Nakaya

The Violent End Stage of Star Formation

Rion Nakaya

The Sagan Series: The Gift of Apollo

Rion Nakaya

The Sagan Series: The Frontier Is Everywhere

Rion Nakaya

The Rosetta Mission Asks, “How Did Our Solar System Form?”

Rion Nakaya

The Rosetta Mission – A claymation tale of science & adventure

Rion Nakaya