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An American spacecraft is about to attempt the delicate task of grabbing rock samples from an asteroid that's about 300 million kilometres away. The Osiris-Rex probe will lower itself on to the 500m-wide object known as Bennu (that's as high as New York's Empire State Building) to make a contact that lasts no more than a few seconds. In the course of this "high-five" manoeuvre, the spacecraft will deliver a squirt of gas to stir up the surface. Osiris-Rex hopes to catch a couple of handfuls of dust and grit it can bring back to Earth. This will hopefully give us some clues about how the Universe was made.

Science correspondent Jonathan Amos explains what this daring mission involves.

Photo: Artwork of Osiris-Rex approaching the surface of Asteroid Bennu Credit: Nasa/Goddard/UOA