NASA Invites Media to New OSIRIS-REx, Asteroid Bennu Study Briefing

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 11, to discuss an important finding from NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx spent over two years near the asteroid Bennu, which is a third of a mile (500 meters) wide. During that time, the spacecraft gathered information about Bennu's size, shape, mass, and composition while monitoring its spin and orbital trajectory. Before leaving the near-Earth object May 10, 2021, the spacecraft scooped up a sample of rock and dust from the asteroid's surface. OSIRIS-REx will return the sample to Earth Sept. 24, 2023, for further scientific study. 

Audio of the teleconference will stream live online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

Participants in the briefing will be:

• Dante Lauretta, study co-author and OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson
• Davide Farnocchia, study lead author and scientist with the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California
• Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
• Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington

To participate in the teleconference, media must contact Rani Gran at: rani.c.gran@nasa.gov by noon Wednesday, Aug. 11, for dial-in information.

For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex 

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SOURCE NASA