During a historic gathering event, the sample head of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sank 1.6 feet (0.5 m) to the asteroid’s surface. Apparently, Bennu’s exterior is made up of loosely packed particles that don’t bond with each other very securely, given what happened when the spacecraft collected samples. if the spacecraft He did not fire his rocket back after rapidly collecting dust and rock, may have sunk directly into the asteroid.
Bennu is an asteroid with a spinning top-like pile of debris, consisting of rock that is held together by gravity. It is about a third of a mile (500 m) wide.
Study co-author Kevin Walsh, a member of the Southwest Research Institute’s OSIRIS-REx science team, said, “If Bennu were really full, it would mean almost solid rock, but we found a lot of empty space on the surface. ” Boulder, Colorado. , , in the present situation.
So what if the spacecraft’s thrusters didn’t fire immediately?
“Osiris-Rex may have gone deeper into the asteroid, which is both exciting and scary,” said study co-author Patrick Mitchell, an OSIRIS-REx scientist and at the National Center for Scientific Research on Cte d’Or. Director of Research. , Azure Observatory in Nice, France.
When the spacecraft reached Bennu in December 2018, the OSIRIS-REx team was surprised to find that the asteroid’s surface was covered with rock. Previous observations had drawn them to sandy areas such as beaches.
Scientists saw asteroid particles being launched into space.
“Our predictions about the surface of the asteroid were completely wrong,” study author Dante Loretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement.
The spacecraft took pictures of the site where it collected samples from Bennu, which further confused the team. Although Osiris Rex gently tapped the asteroid, it threw off a large amount of rock debris and left a 26 ft (8 m) wide crater.
“What we saw was a giant wall of debris emanating from the sampling site,” said Loretta, a professor of planetary science and cosmic chemistry at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. We were like, ‘Holy cow! “Every time we test sampling procedures in the lab, we’re barely able to make up a difference.”
The before and after images of the landing site show a dramatic difference. The image shows what appears to be a depression on the surface, at the base of which are several large rocks. The sampling event itself caused this sunken landform. The asteroid’s dark surface also contains reflective dust near the collection point, which indicates where the rock was moved during the event. This change is visible in the slider below.
Analyzing the spacecraft’s acceleration data, the team determined that it encountered a small amount of resistance, the same amount that one might feel when pressing a piston in a French coffee machine.
Understanding more about the formation of Bennu could help scientists study other asteroids, whether the target is planning missions such as OSIRIS-REx or protecting Earth from potential collisions with space rocks.
An asteroid like Bennu, which barely braces itself, could enter Earth’s atmosphere, posing another risk, even if it was not a direct hit.
“We need to continue to have physical contact with those objects because it’s the only way to determine their mechanical properties and their response to external action,” Mitchell said. “Photos are important but they don’t tell us whether they are weak or strong.”
OSIRIS-REx – which stands for Origin, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Protection – Regolith Explorer – was NASA’s first mission to a near-Earth asteroid, and once there, it traveled to a planet by a spacecraft. Shown the closest orbit of the object. , This time. Bennu is the smallest object ever orbited by a spacecraft.
The Bennu spacecraft memorial is the largest specimen collected by a NASA mission since the Apollo astronauts returned moon rocks.
Once Osiris Rex approaches Earth in 2023, it will dump a capsule containing the sample, shoot through Earth’s atmosphere and parachute into the Utah desert.
If OSIRIS-REx is still healthy after falling from the sample, it will launch a new campaign to study other asteroids.
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