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Asteroid-circling Spacecraft Grabs Cool Snapshot of Home

by Associated Press

   CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA --

   An asteroid-circling spacecraft has captured a cool snapshot of home.
   NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft took the picture days before going into
   orbit around asteroid Bennu on New Year's Eve.
   The tiny asteroid -- barely one-third of a mile (500 meters) across --
   appears as a big bright blob in the long-exposure photo released last
   week. Seventy million miles (110 million kilometers) away, Earth
   appears as a white dot, with the moon an even smaller dot but still
   clearly visible.

   Osiris-Rex is the first spacecraft to orbit such a small celestial
   body, and from such a close distance -- about a mile (1,600 meters)
   out.
   Next year, Osiris-Rex will attempt to gather some samples from the
   carbon-rich asteroid, for return to Earth in 2023.
   Osiris-Rex launched from Florida in 2016.