RASC Mississauga: Near-Earth Asteroid Bennu and the OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Mission

Speaker: Dr Amy Shaw, York University

This talk will focus on the OSIRIS-REx mission and its target, the near-earth potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. The mission will launch in 2016, spend two years en route to Bennu, and then spend over a year studying the asteroid and choosing a spot from which to grab powdery asteroid surface material, which it will then bring back to Earth. Various components of the spacecraft, including science instruments, are now undergoing design and construction. Canada is providing the laser altimeter for the mission; this laser ranging instrument will be used to map asteroid reflectivity as well as asteroid shape. The talk will cover some key points about the mission and its objectives, the mission target asteroid, and the OSIRIS-REx suite of science instruments.

Amy Shaw is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering at York University in Toronto. She has a PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in Saint Louis and a BA in Physics from Cornell University. She has worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers, CRISM, Phoenix, and Deep Impact space missions. Amy is currently conducting laboratory measurements on minerals found in meteorites that are thought to come from asteroids similar to Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission.

The meeting is open to the public and is free.

William Davis Building, Lecture Hall SE2082
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road
Mississauga

Enter off of Mississauga Road. Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of the Davis Building. Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room.

http://earthshineastronomy.ca/events/2014/8/6/rasc-mississauga-centre-meeting-october-24