Next 12 months, NASA plans to scoop up a small batch of dirt from an asteroid named Bennu, situated hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth — and now the agency knows which a part of the space rock it’s going to steal from. Today, the space agency announced that one among its spacecraft will try and grab some particles from a 20-meter-wide crater, called Nightingale, on the asteroid.
Engineers picked the Nightingale site from 4 final candidate spots on Bennu, arguing it may very well be the perfect place to search out organic material and water on the asteroid which will hail from the earliest days of the Solar System. “This one really got here out on top, due to the scientific value,” Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator of the asteroid sampling mission, said during a press conference announcing the choice. Nonetheless, targeting the crater is just not without risk. The realm is surrounded by a big wall of rocks, which could make it difficult to grab a sample. But ultimately, Lauretta said the realm could have what they’re in search of.