Touch And Go: NASA Samples An Asteroid

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

A NASA spacecraft sent out to collect a sample of rock and dust from an asteroid has nabbed so much that it's created an unexpected problem. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce shares a cautionary tale of a scientific mission that was almost too successful.

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Follow Maddie and Nell on Twitter. Maddie's @maddie_sofia and Nell's @nell_sci_NPR. Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.6	Maddie, if I hear with MPR Science correspondent Nell Greenfield, boys, hi, no.
0:09.9	Hey, Maddie.
0:10.9	So since it is the final day for voting, which will prove to be a very stressful day, we have
0:16.4	decided to promptly leave Earth and go to space.
0:19.9	Well, you're not going to escape that easy because you know there is still voting in space.
0:24.0	Astronauts get to vote in space.
0:26.0	Fine, fine, fine.
0:27.0	Okay, that's true.
0:28.0	That is so escape.
0:29.0	Today, we are talking asteroids, specifically an asteroid named Bennu.
0:34.3	It's more than 200 million miles away.
0:37.6	It orbits the sun in about 1.2 earth years.
0:41.5	NASA sent a spacecraft to the asteroid in 2016, right?
0:45.4	Right.
0:46.4	So it reached the asteroid in 2018 and it's been surveying Bennu.
0:49.7	And in the last few weeks, it's been undertaking the most critical part of its mission.
0:53.8	And let me tell you, it has been a crazy few weeks.
0:56.3	I have been covering the whole thing and it's just been fascinating to watch.
0:59.8	Okay, first things first now, I know the Earth gets hit by little space rocks all the time.
1:05.9	As a single planetary life form, how are you doing to be about this asteroid?
1:10.6	Well, technically, it is considered to be a potentially dangerous asteroid.
	...

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