OSIRIS-REx marks the spot: NASA selects a landing site on asteroid 'Bennu' for its 2020 mission

NASA has selected the site for its asteroid sample collection mission from the four previously-proposed candidates after a year of study. The spinning-top-shaped asteroid, '101955 Bennu', is a 1,614 feet (492 m) wide near-Earth object with a cumulative 1-in-2,700 chance of hitting Earth from 2175–2199. The chosen primary sample site -- dubbed'Nightingale' -- is located in a young crater high up in the asteroid's northern hemisphere. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer -- or OSIRIS-Rex -- craft has been analysing Bennu since December 2018. If successful in its mission, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first US spacecraft to return samples of an asteroid to the Earth for analysis. For NASA researchers, Bennu will act like a time-capsule from the birth of the solar system, containing information on its formation and evolution.