NASA has expanded the mission of the Orisis-Rex spacecraft: the probe, which will return home with samples collected from the asteroid Bennu, will also travel to the asteroid Apophis, which will approach Earth three times by 2068.
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The U.S. Space Agency (NASA) announced Tuesday that its spacecraft, which collected samples from the asteroid Bennu in 2020, has been given a new name and mission: the OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (Osiris-Apex) has been redirected to the asteroid Apophis, which is 2029 meters in diameter. it approaches the Earth at 32,000 kilometers.
Osiris-Apex is in orbit around the space rock as it passes by Earth and tries to examine the S-type asteroid as closely as possible.
The new task of the spacecraft is to study the changes that are taking place in the asteroid due to the approach of the Earth, and with its engines it is trying to remove and study the dust and tiny rock on and below the surface of Apophis.