OSIRIS-Rex Approaches Asteroid Bennu — Credit Lockheed Martin

Is the subject of this month’s Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) meeting.   EVAS in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, May 25^th, 2024.  The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes Valley.

The primary objective of NASA’s Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is to explore and return a pristine sample from the asteroid Bennu to help scientists understand the origin and evolution of our solar system and, ultimately, how life began.  After arriving at Bennu in 2018, the spacecraft gathered data to understand the asteroid and select a sampling site.  A sample was collected successfully in October 2020 and OSIRIS-REx began its return to Earth in May 2021.  In September of 2023, the sample was successfully returned to Earth — the mission science team has begun analysis of this incredible sample and this presentation will describe early results.
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Dr. Vicky Hamilton Southwest Research Institute

Our returning speaker this month is Dr. Vicky Hamilton. She is an Institute Scientist at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. She received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University and her A.B. from Occidental College. She is a geologist specializing in laboratory spectroscopy of minerals, meteorites, and returned samples, numerical modeling of infrared spectra, and infrared remote sensing of planetary surfaces to determine composition and physical properties. She has been a science team Co-Investigator and Deputy Instrument Scientist/Principal Investigator on NASA planetary science flight missions to Mars and asteroids, including Mars Global Surveyor, 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Science Laboratory, OSIRIS-REx, and Lucy. She is also the Chair of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), a research community-based, interdisciplinary forum providing the scientific input needed to plan and prioritize NASA’s Mars exploration activities.

The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our new 16-inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.

Estes Park Memorial Observatory

Information about the meeting can be found on the observatory website at: www.AngelsAbove.Org.