Hindi English Translation || Editorial || Timeless quest: On NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and the Bennu asteroid sample

Timeless quest: On NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and the Bennu asteroid sample

Bennu sample can help human understanding beyond the immediate (तुरंत)

On September 24, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off a capsule over the earth, leaving it to be pulled down by the planet’s gravity. It then deployed (तैनात करना) parachutes and gently landed in Utah in the U.S., where experts waited to retrieve (पुनः प्राप्त करना) its invaluable contents: around 250 grams of rocks and dust that OSIRIS-REx had collected from the surface of 101955 Bennu. Bennu is an asteroid orbiting the sun (with a period of 436 days) such that it comes relatively close to the earth once every six years or so. It is a carbonaceous asteroid with characteristics that suggest it settled into its present form and composition within 10 million years after the solar system’s formation, surviving the last 4.5 billion years nearly intact (Not damaged or impaired; complete and in its original condition). Such ‘leftover’ pieces of debris are expected to reveal the system’s ingredients and the signatures of the processes that combined them in different ways. Many scientists also believe that when rocks such as Bennu crashed (टक्कर) into the earth, they delivered the compounds required for the formation of life. Also, as Bennu could smash into the earth between 2178 and 2290, studying it could inform ways to prevent this collision (A violent impact when two or more objects come into contact with force). NASA launched OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) in 2016. Two years later, scientists worked to place it into orbit around Bennu, at an altitude of just 2 km. Bennu itself was zipping through space at 28 km/s. On October 20, 2020, OSIRIS-REx landed just long enough to grab (पकड़ना, झपटना) a sample of the asteroid from a pre-identified spot before flying back up. In May 2021, it began its long journey back to earth, where it dropped off the capsule holding Bennu’s regolith (A layer of loose, fragmented material covering solid rock on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body). After this, it will reincarnate (पुनर्जन्म होना, अवतार लेना) in its OSIRIS-APEX avatar, to rendezvous (मिलन स्थल, संगम) with the silica-rich asteroid 99942 Apophis in 2029.

The OSIRIS mission has two identities. In time, it works alongside Japan’s two Hayabusa missions, which have collected and returned samples of 25143 Itokawa and 162173 Ryugu, to expand our knowledge of the solar system’s history. OSIRIS is NASA’s third element of its ‘New Frontiers’ programme, after New Horizons (to explore the Kuiper Belt) and Juno (to study the planet exerting (प्रयास करना, खींचना) the largest gravitational influence (प्रभाव) in the solar system). While studies of Bennu include significant commercial components — such as opportunities for space-mining and impact mitigation technologies — they also participate in a more timeless quest (खोज): to find out where life came from and what its fate could be. With OSIRIS’s capsule, humankind virtually gets to hold infinity in the palm of the hand.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.Quest (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - खोज
English Meaning - A search, pursuit, or journey in order to find or achieve something.

2.Immediate (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning - तुरंत
English Meaning - Happening or done without delay; instant.

3.Deploy (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - तैनात करना
English Meaning - To position or use resources, especially troops or equipment, strategically for a specific purpose.

4.Retrieve (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - पुनः प्राप्त करना
English Meaning - To get back or regain something, especially after searching or effort.

5.Crash (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - टक्कर
English Meaning - A sudden and violent collision or impact.

6.Grab (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - पकड़ना, झपटना
English Meaning - To seize or grasp something suddenly and firmly.

7.Reincarnate (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - पुनर्जन्म होना, अवतार लेना
English Meaning - To be reborn in a new body or form after death; to undergo reincarnation.

8.Rendezvous (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - मिलन स्थल, संगम
English Meaning - A meeting or appointment at a prearranged time and place.

9.Exert (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - प्रयास करना, खींचना
English Meaning - To apply physical or mental effort to accomplish a task or achieve a goal.

10.Influence (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - प्रभाव
English Meaning - The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

11.Intact (Adjective)

English Meaning - Not damaged or impaired; complete and in its original condition.

12.Collision (Noun)

English Meaning - A violent impact when two or more objects come into contact with force.

13.Regolith (Noun)

English Meaning - A layer of loose, fragmented material covering solid rock on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body.