When images came back from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) showing what appears to be a large black pyramid on asteroid 1999-RQ36, people freaked out.

Now some are asking if NASA is sending a spacecraft, the OSIRIS-REx mission scheduled for launch in late 2016, to a nearby asteroid to bring back a rock sample or to check out a pyramid on its surface.

NASA has always had a strange fascination with naming it's missions after ancient gods; Apollo, Orion, Columbia, etc, and now OSIRIS-REx, which NASA says:

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security -- Regolith Explorer spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36), and bring at least a 2.1-ounce sample back to Earth for study. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.

So is this the target of the mission? Do you think the video was faked?

 

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