- 2948 - ASTEROID - touch down on Bennu asteroid? OSIRIS-REx launched into space in 2016 and reached the asteroid Bennu two years later. In the time since, the spacecraft has set records for orbiting the smallest object yet for a spacecraft, and in the tightest orbit to boot.
------------------ 2948 - ASTEROID - touch down on Bennu asteroid?
- The spacecraft, NASA's “OSIRIS-Rex” probe, briefly touched down on Bennu asteroid October 21, 2020 in the space agency's first-ever attempt to collect samples of an asteroid.
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- OSIRIS-REx touched a rocky region of Bennu called Nightingale with a spindly arm tipped with a hubcap-shaped collection plate. At the moment of contact, which lasted just 6 seconds, the spacecraft fired off a puff of nitrogen gas to essentially blow tiny pieces of the 1,640-foot-wide Bennu into its collection device.
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- It was a high-stakes maneuver for OSIRIS-REx. The spacecraft only has three nitrogen gas canisters, and so three tries, to collect asteroid samples. During this encounter, OSIRIS-REx could have crashed into Bennu, detected a problem and waved itself off or touched the surface but hit a big rock that made snatching smaller particles impossible. Any one of those scenarios could have spelled failure for the $800 million sample-return mission.
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- The first images from OSIRIS-REx showed a successful touchdown, a puff of rocky particles and a smooth departure from the asteroid Bennu.
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- OSIRIS-REx touched down at a gentle speed of 0.2 mph, pushing into the surface a tiny bit before backing away to a safe distance at a cool 0.9 mph.
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- Any worries of hitting a big, hard rock were abated as OSIRIS-REx appeared to just smash through large chunks about 8 inches across.
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- OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's name is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. It has revealed tantalizing new details about Bennu’s discovery of pieces of another asteroid, Vesta, on the surface Bennu is planning to return space rock samples to Earth remains the core mission.
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- Scientists hope that by studying pieces of Bennu, which is made up of the pristine leftovers from the birth of the solar system, they'll glean new insights into how our cosmic neighborhood formed and how life arose on Earth.
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- They also want to better understand asteroids like Bennu, which can represent a potential impact threat to Earth, to aid planetary defense efforts.
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- The next step for OSIRIS-REx is to confirm that the spacecraft actually captured samples of asteroid Bennu. To do that, the probe will use a camera to snap pictures of the sample collection plate.
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- The spacecraft will also spin in place with its sample collection arm outstretched to measure any mass difference, which will reveal how much sample was collected. Mission scientists are hoping to collect 2.1 ounces (60 grams) of asteroid Bennu for return to Earth.
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- In 2010, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa spacecraft returned pieces of the asteroid Itokawa. A follow-up mission, Hayabusa2, will return samples of a different asteroid called Ryugu this month December, 2020.
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- If all goes well, the samples will be placed in a special capsule for eventual return to Earth in 2023, when OSIRIS-REx makes its way back to our planet.
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------------------------------ Lots of reviews are available about asteroids:
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- 2939 - ASTEROID - sample return? - Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe zoomed past Earth on December 5th and dropped off a capsule containing bits of an asteroid, finishing a six-year round trip to an asteroid
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- 2916 - ASTEROID - near miss? Many nearby stars will pass close to the Oort Cloud at the outskirts of our Solar System, but only one will move through it. In about 1.35 million years, Gliese 710 likely will gravitationally perturb millions of comets, sending a sizable number on a potential collision course with Earth.
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- 2910 - ASTEROID - mining gold from asteroids? “16 Psyche” is an asteroid full of metal in the asteroid belt that could be worth $700 quintillion.. NASA plans to visit 16 Psyche by 2026. Could we be commercial mining faraway asteroids or should we start with the moon?
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- 2722 - SPACETIME - at the macro and micro levels.? How Can Space and Time be Related?. Space and time seem to be absolute quantities to us. It is hard to see their interrelationship until you take their ratio as velocity and extend that ratio to its limits. Velocity is space / time!
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- 2627 - ASTEROID - to hit Mother Earth. It is not an if, it is a when. Astronomers are tracking Near Earth Asteroids, NEAs. There are many, and each one needs to be identified with an orbit trajectory to learn if it will be a threat. OK, let’s just say they see one coming right at us. What then?
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- 2595 - ASTEROID - Teacher’s Lesson Plan. The fastest spinning asteroid was discovered by an amateur astronomer, but using a professional telescope by remote control. This just became available to all teachers who want to teach some astronomy using the internet.
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- 2332 - Asteroids, comets, and meteors are ice balls and rocks orbiting the Sun just like our planet. What we call these objects all depends on where the debris was formed in the accretion disk that rotated around the Sun when the planets were formed.
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- 2323 - See Reviews 2226 about the Ryugu asteroid mission and Review 2203 about the Bennu mission. Review 2044 is about asteroid Oumaumau and its appendix lists 11 more reviews about asteroids in general. This Review focuses on the early results of their asteroid encounters, as of March, 2019.
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- 2314 - On December 18, 2018, an asteroid barreled through the atmosphere at a speed of 72,000 miles per hour , on a steep trajectory of seven degrees. Measuring several meters in size, the space rock exploded 16 miles above the Earth's surface, with an impact energy of 173 kilotons.
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- 2296 - Asteroids are small, airless rocky worlds revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or minor planets. In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of Earth's moon. But despite their size, asteroids can be dangerous.
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- 2250 - Asteroids visits and impacts. We have several spacecrafts visiting asteroids right now. January, 2019. This Review will summarize the current visits and then get into the history even some that are evident on the Earth and on the Moon.
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- 2226 Asteroid Ryugu. Spacecraft landed on the surface on September 2018. What have we learned? The Japanese spacecraft is studying the asteroid named Ryugu. After over a 3 year journey the spacecraft has released rovers to the surface to make measurements. For the next 18 months, the spacecraft will probe, poke, prod and impact the asteroid, deploying the small lander and three rovers to hop along the surface.
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- 2209 Asteroid Oumuamua from another solar system. If Oumuamua came from an extrasolar planetary system like our solar system, it is much more likely to have begun its journey as a comet. The ejection of an asteroid from an extrasolar system is much less likely and could involve a violent event such as the explosion of a star.
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- 2203 Asteroid Bennu. Arrived December 2019 and will inspect every square inch of the asteroid before returning home in 2023.
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- 2044 - Oumuamua is a needle shaped asteroid that will exit solar system. This Review lists 15 other reviews about asteroids.
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- 1924 - Visitors from outer space. Asteroids and supernovae affect life on Earth. Detective work is looking at the evidence. Did the asteroid that struck the Yucatan Peninsula kill off the dinosaurs? Did supernova 1987 affect life on Earth?
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- 1923 - In 2017 50 asteroids passed us at a distance closer than our Moon. When will a big asteroid hit the Earth? What is the mission that will land a spacecraft on an asteroid and bring back a sample of its surface? This mission to also to determine the likelihood of it impacting Earth. It comes by every 6 years.
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- 1871 - Asteroids and their Trojan orbits. In order to predict asteroids trajectories we need to learn about their composition. Missions will soon visit two asteroids to learn more. Maybe, where life originated.
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- 1829 - Dwarf planets and asteroids. Not the 8 planets in our Solar System ,but, the Dwarf Planets , asteroids, and comets that have had the most impact on the evolution of life on Earth.
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- 1825 - Asteroids responsible for evolution on Earth? How many times has Earth been hit by a large asteroid? What is the likelihood of another hit? What is Congress and NASA doing about this potential danger? The math to calculate the energy of an impact.
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- 1769 - When is the next asteroid going to hit Earth? How many are near Earth objects intersecting our orbit around the Sun? How big are they? What can we do about an imminent impact?
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- 1580 - Asteroids the bricks that built the Solar System. In 2013 there were 551,621 registered asteroids. Ceres is the biggest at 620 miles in diameter.
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- 1554 - Asteroids and meteorites are fossils with stories.
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- 1429 - There is an asteroid heading right towards us.
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- 1375 - There is an asteroid following us. Earth and the asteroid share the same orbit around the Sun.
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- 1193 - About the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan, Mexico.
- 1309 - Vesta and Ceres get a visitor, the Dawn spacecraft.
- 1296 - When an asteroid hit Manson, Iowa.
- 1265 - This asteroid missed us, but , what if? June 27, 2011.
- 1315 - How do asteroids and planets evolve?
- 1193 - Asteroid to hit mother Earth? About the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan, Mexico.
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- 937 - Spinning Asteroid, teacher’s lesson plan. “Spinning Asteroid - A t Teacher’s Lesson Plan”. How student can use the Faulkes Telescope to do astronomy 24-7 (faulkestelescope.com/education)
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- 913 - Apophis and killer asteroids
- 660 - Asteroids, Comets and Russian Rouulette.
- 635 - Asteroid Apophis arrived April 17, 2006
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December 21, 2020 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 2932
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--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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--- to: ------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
--------------------- --- Tuesday, December 22, 2020 ---------------------------
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