Gadgetory

tonight there's an asteroid hurtling towards Earth and there's a chance it could hit our planet and destroy everything we hold dear do you a send a ragtag team of misfits to blow the thing up in space or be send an asteroid sample return mission on a seven-year expedition to collect space rock particles all in the name of scientific research this is NASA so they're doing the science thing I'm Claire I Lee welcome to watch this space from the Senate studios in Sydney this is your weekly guide to everything on earth you need to know about space and tonight osiris-rex NASA's seven-year mission to play tag with an asteroid for five seconds the origins spectral interpretation resource identification security regular Explorer yikes nasa is that to answer questions that have plagued mankind for ages where did we come from and what is our destiny man this is gonna be one smart asteroid osiris-rex is nasa's mission to learn about the origins of our solar system by picking up clues on an asteroid or as NASA calls them the leftover debris from the solar system formation process hold on hold on this is a mission to dig out leftovers we literally just landed in sight on Mars and the Parker Solar Probe is about to touch the Sun and we're rooting around in the old casserole parts of the solar system I mean NASA even calls this asteroid an on planet it's kind of like she doesn't even go here am i right well no this mission is actually kind of a big deal our solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago when a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed in on itself imagine it like a big cake mix the bulk of this cosmic batter goes into making the big fancy cake the Sun then the universe realized it still has a bit of mixture left over and remembered that delightful muffin Tina got from aren't Glenda last Christmas and so it divvied that up into making the planets the stuff that was leftover the raisins if you will because no one should ever put raisins in a cake those are the asteroids just like the raisins in the back of your kitchen covered those asteroids have remained fairly unchanged for 4.5 billion years so they could tell us a great deal about the origins of the solar system and also like the raisins in your cupboard the asteroid osiris-rex is focusing on could contain the precursors to the origin of life seriously I need to clean my kitchen cupboard so where is a Syrus Rex heading well after blasting off in September 2016 Oh Rexy you're so sexy is heading to a little carbonaceous asteroid about the size of the Empire State Building known as 101 955 venom it's a totally normal nothing to see here asteroid what's that oh oh the Armageddon thing you know we should probably mention that on an unrelated note it's time for this week's segment of will it kill me benno is hurtling towards Earth and it's 100% definitely gonna totally kill us all maybe according to the center for near Earth object studies Ben who is high up on the Palermo technical impact hazard scale that's basically the hot-or-not rankings of how likely we are to get completely obliterated by objects flying towards us from space Ben who is ranked at number two probably just after that car that Elon Musk shot in the sky it's probability of hitting Earth it's about one in 2,700 right now so it's fairly low on the Galactic death scale but on the plus side you still have a bit of time to prepare it's not gonna hit Earth until 2175 if it does according to NASA so there's no need to go buying timeshares on Mars just yet I mean I don't know why they called it a Cyrus Rex naming it after the Egyptian god of the afterlife if the asteroid wasn't gonna kill us all anyway osiris-rex arrived at Benner on December 3rd at 2018 according to NASA it's going to spend almost a year surveying the asteroid to find the most scientifically interesting spot to collect its sample but it will only make brief contact fist-bump if you will to collect surface samples in the hope that they will tell us more about the origins of earth and the history of our solar system because just like your parents were into Jethro Tull and fondue before you were even born the solar system had a life before we came along but because this is NASA we're talking about they're not sending a spacecraft 1.2 billion miles just to collect a bunch of space dirt and shovel it into a lunchbox first of all they don't call it space dirt they call it regolith fancy and Osiris Rex is going to collect this regolith by playing tag works kind of like a real game of tag except slower and in space the spacecraft will get up nice and close to Benner and reach out with its touch and go sample acquisition mechanism or Tagg Sam tag Sam Venu it's like those hipsters eat your coffee place had twins and gave them the worst possible names this arm will press down onto the surface of the asteroid for about five seconds blowing nitrogen gas to rustle up some dust and pebbles which will be collected and stored in a Syrus Rex for the journey home Syrus Rex has three chances to collect between 60 grams and two kilograms of regolith that's between two ounces and four and a half pounds to return to Earth after that NASA's team of scientists will be able to study the space dirt for clues about what was happening in space 4.5 billion years ago hope been who has lots of Secrets to share after all this mission is all about dishing the dirt on the origins of the solar system alright that's it for this week's edition I've watched this space if you have enjoyed our broadcast then be sure to click the like button on your remote and subscribe to get more space news as it happens I'm Claire Reilly for Senate goodnight and Godspeed I can just see them now tag Samms stay away from the bagel station credenza stop it just be kind to Benner didn't Wylie had children it was just so nice and Brooklyn before all this musk you musk you really I for one welcome the heat death of the universe could not come soon enough I'm over here now it's flawless we haven't cheated this at all and a totally different newsdesk we have a multi camera setup not one person in a room just try to lie with a green-screen it's professional