Whereas scientists believed that asteroid Bennu had a clean and plain floor, they have been just lately astonished to be taught the true nature of its exterior. An evaluation of the information gathered by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft revealed that Bennu’s floor consists of loosely packed particles that resemble a pit stuffed with plastic balls.
The newest revelation was made after OSIRIS-REx collected samples from the asteroid in October 2020 and despatched again close-up and detailed footage of Bennu’s floor to Earth. “What we noticed was an enormous wall of particles radiating out from the pattern website. We have been like, ‘Holy cow!’” stated Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, based mostly on the College of Arizona.
Scientists noticed the floor coated with quite a few pebbles whereas the spacecraft additionally witnessed an unusually mild touchdown. A big crater measuring 8 metres vast was additionally observed that had been fashioned because of the landing of the spacecraft. “Each time we examined the pattern pickup process within the lab, we barely made a divot,” stated Lauretta.
Puzzled by the unusual property of Bennu’s floor, the mission determined to ship the spacecraft again to take extra pictures. Scientists seemed on the quantity of particles in earlier than and after footage whereas in addition they analysed the acceleration knowledge throughout the spacecraft’s touchdown. It was realized that OSIRIS-REx skilled little or no resistance when it made the contact down. Ron Ballouz, an OSIRIS-REx scientist, shared that “by the point we fired our thrusters to depart the floor we have been nonetheless plunging into the asteroid.”
The staff of scientists carried out tons of of simulations and used the acceleration knowledge and pictures to interpret the density and cohesion of the asteroid. The findings have been revealed in two papers in Science and Science Advances which have been led by Dante Lauretta and member of the OSIRIS-REx science staff Kevin Walsh, respectively.
The asteroid had stunned earlier too when OSIRIS-REx noticed its floor to be stuffed with boulders quite than a sandy and clean floor they’d anticipated.
