NASA deep space probe reaches asteroid deemed potential Earth threat
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - NASAs deep space explorer Osiris-Rex flew on Monday to within a dozen miles of its destination, a skyscraper-sized asteroid believed to hold organic compounds fundamental to life as well as the potential to collide with Earth in about 150 years.
Launched in September 2016, Osiris-Rex embarked on NASAs unprecedented seven-year mission to conduct a close-up survey of the asteroid Bennu, collect a sample from its surface and return that material to Earth for study.
Bennu, a rocky mass roughly a third of a mile wide and shaped like a giant acorn, orbits the sun at roughly the same distance as Earth and is thought to be rich in carbon-based organic molecules dating back to the earliest days of the solar system. Water, another vital component to the evolution of life, may also be trapped in the asteroids minerals.
Scientists believe that asteroids and comets crashing into early Earth delivered organic compounds and water that seeded the planet for life, and atomic-level analysis of samples from Bennu could help prove that theory.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-asteroid/nasa-deep-space-probe-reaches-asteroid-deemed-potential-earth-threat-idUSKBN1O308Z
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,494 posts)Last edited Tue Dec 4, 2018, 07:48 AM - Edit history (1)
on NASA's "feature" web site.
Link: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/osiris-rex-approach
Looks like a huge overdone sesame dinner roll.....
Main NASA mission web page: https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex
Note that the sample brought back to earth will be between 2 and 70 ounces of regolith.....
(snip)
This test deployment was a rehearsal for a date in mid-2020 when the spacecraft will unfold the TAGSAM arm again, slowly descend to Bennus surface, and briefly touch the asteroid with the sampler head. A burst of nitrogen gas will stir up regolith on the asteroids surface, which will be caught in the TAGSAM head. The TAG sequence will take about five seconds, after which the spacecraft will execute small maneuvers to carefully back away from Bennu. Afterward, SamCam will image the sampler head, as it did during the test deployment, to help confirm that TAGSAM collected at least 2.1 ounces (60 grams) of regolith.
........
Maxheader
(4,373 posts)around the axis of rotation..and smooth!~
blugbox
(951 posts)I can't believe it!! A third of a mile wide and you can see impact craters on its surface!! In the absolute vastness of space, how long did it take to accumulate those scars? Image such a chance impact... or perhaps it was part of some high activity event in the ancient past
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,494 posts)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu
(snip)
Average orbital speed: 28,000 metres per second (63,000 mph)
Origin and evolution
The carbonaceous material that composes asteroid Bennu originally came from dying stars such as red giants and supernovae. According to the accretion theory, this material came together 4.5 billion years ago during the formation of the Solar System.
Asteroid Bennu's basic mineralogy and chemical nature would have been established during the first 10 million years of the Solar System's formation, where the carbonaceous material underwent some geologic heating and chemical transformation into more complex minerals. Bennu probably began in the inner asteroid belt as a fragment from a larger body with a diameter of 100 km.
That thing is moving on!............
Harker
(14,033 posts)with the necessities of life, and others may ultimately extinguish that life.
The universe can be a tough place to catch a break.
blugbox
(951 posts)This particular asteroid looks like a composite of many different smaller objects. I can totally imagine this guy exploding in the upper atmosphere and raining its contents down, seeding a planet.
Thinking regularly on the immensity of the universe, and the fluke of conditions that make life here possible for so many different creatures, helps me avoid taking little things too seriously.
I try to be joyous and cooperative.
keithbvadu2
(36,876 posts)turbinetree
(24,710 posts)End Of The Road
(1,397 posts)Or a sugar-coated marshmallow. Thats what popped into my head.
Seriously, is the shape of the asteroid as regular as it looks in the pic? Most asteroid pics Ive seen are of really misshaped asymmetrical hunks of rock. Is this unusual?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,354 posts)Most sizeable asteroids are reasonably regular. They choose an asteroid that is above 200m diameter, so that it'd have loose rock that can be collected: https://www.asteroidmission.org/why-bennu/
End Of The Road
(1,397 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)blugbox
(951 posts)As celestial bodies become more massive, you can see the effects of gravity start to pull their shape more and more symmetrically, and eventually, fully spherical. Totally symmetrical.
Now obviously, a lot of that depends on the materials involved and the size of the coalesced chunks, but this one is a great example.
mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)Should be plenty of water for splashdown.
Wonderful pictures.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)Nitram
(22,853 posts)and steps are being taken to learn how to deal with it.
randr
(12,414 posts)could this mission be seen as the cause?
Curiosity did after all kill the cat.
Merlot
(9,696 posts)Nitram
(22,853 posts)The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)with our replacement. The universe knows best.
turbinetree
(24,710 posts)elmac
(4,642 posts)maybe the asteroid will get things started, make Earth great again