- 4221 - ASTEROIDS - what can we learn from samples? - After a years-long mission to collect and retrieve rock samples from the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. The sample, between 3.5 to 8.8 ounces of rocky space rubble collected from the asteroid Bennu's surface contains water and carbon. The sample was hurtled back to Earth at speeds of up to 27,000 mph, September 24, 2023.
------------------ 4221 - ASTEROIDS - what can we learn from samples?
- After a
seven-year, 4 billion-mile roundtrip, the capsule deployed its parachute and
safely landed in the Utah desert before being transported to Johnson Space
Center, where scientists have begun analyzing its contents for signs of life
beyond our planet.
-
- Bennu is a
potentially hazardous asteroid that has a 1-in-2,700 chance of striking Earth
in the year 2182 which is the highest odds of any known space object.
-
- This is the
biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth. Carbon and water molecules are exactly the
elements we wanted to find. They're crucial elements in the formation of our
own planet, and they're going to help us determine the origins of elements that
could have led to life.
-
- Earth's water is
older than the planet itself and was probably brought here by asteroid and
comet impacts. But water wasn't the only material asteroids brought to Earth.
The building blocks of life likely hitched a ride on a space rock, too.
-
- Bennu is a B-type
asteroid, which means it contains high amounts of carbon and, potentially, many
of the primordial molecules present when life emerged on Earth.
Some of these building blocks, including uracil, one of the
nucleobases for RNA, were recently found on the asteroid Ryugu by the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which returned to Earth
with its rock sample in 2020. OSIRIS-REx mission scientists are hoping to find
other potential precursors for Earth's biology inside the Bennu sample.
-
- The bounty of
carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals
are just the tip of the iceberg. These
discoveries propel us on a journey to understand not only our celestial
neighborhood but also the potential for life's beginnings.
-
- The sample was
collected after nearly two years of fraught searching for a landing site on
Bennu's craggy surface. Upon contact with the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx fired a
burst of nitrogen from its Touch-and-Go Sample-Acquisition Mechanism not only to stick the landing but to prevent
the craft from sinking through the asteroid.
-
- The blast sent
rocks and dust careening around the craft, and some of that rocky debris landed
in a canister aboard OSIRIS-REx. A follow-up blast of OSIRIS-REx's thrusters
later lifted it from Bennu, and the spacecraft completed a number of flyovers
before leaving the asteroid for Earth in May 2021.
-
- Tiny particles of
rock gathered from the asteroid Ryugu are some of the most primordial bits of
material ever examined on Earth and could give us a glimpse into the origins of
the solar system.
-
- Asteroid “162173
Ryugu” measures about 2,953 feet in diameter and orbits the sun between Earth
and Mars, occasionally crossing Earth's orbit. The carbonaceous, or C-type,
asteroid spins like a top as it hurtles through space, and like other C-type
asteroids, Ryugu likely contains material from the nebula (giant cloud of dust
and gas) that gave birth to the sun and its planets billions of years ago.
-
- In 2019, the
Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 collected samples from the surface of Ryugu, and
on December 6, 2020, those samples were successfully transported to Earth in an
airtight container tucked inside the reentry capsule.
-
- In total, the
asteroid samples include about 0.2 ounces of material. The largest particles of
rock measure about 0.31 inches across; the smallest have diameters less than
0.04 inch, so they resemble fine dust. To the naked eye, the samples look like
incredibly dark bits of black pepper.
-
- They kept the
material in a vacuum chamber or in a sealed environment filled with purified
nitrogen. The samples have been handled
without exposing them to the Earth's atmosphere. The team assessed the samples using an
optical microscope and various instruments that measure how the rocks absorb,
emit and reflect different wavelengths of light in the visible and infrared
spectra.
-
- The pitch-dark
asteroid bits reflect only about 2% to 3% of the light that hits them. The
samples' bulk density, the mass of the particles divided by the total volume
was lower than that of known carbonaceous meteorites. This finding hints that
the rocks are highly porous, meaning that between the individual grains of
materials in the rocks exist many pockets of empty space that would allow water
and gas to seep through.
-
- This finding aligns
with preliminary data collected by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which also hinted
that the rocks on Ryugu's surface are highly porous.
-
- They used a
technique known as “hyperspectral microscopy” to take a closer look at the
composition of the asteroid samples. The hyperspectral microscope works by
illuminating the samples with different wavelengths of light in the visible and
infrared spectra and snapping high-resolution pictures as it does so. Each
snapshot measures about 0.2 by 0.2 inches, and each individual pixel provides
data on the microscopic scale. In this way, the team revealed fine details of
the rocks' color, structure and chemical composition.
-
- Snapshots of the
Ryugu samples revealed that the rock particles are composed of a "hydrated
matrix," which includes materials such as clay, with carbon-based
compounds embedded throughout. Some of
the material properties were close to those of the “carbonaceous
chondrites".
-
- The Ryugu samples
are among the darkest ever examined. We
have to understand why and what it implies regarding the formation and
evolution of this material. They discovered traces of ammonia-rich compounds in
the rock, which could have some implications regarding the origin of Ryugu and
our understanding of primordial material.
-
- Further
assessments of the organic compounds and minerals in the samples will provide
key information about how the asteroid and its original body first formed. They
can examine the volatile compounds, or those that can be easily vaporized,
within the samples; these sorts of tests can reveal how solar winds shaped the
asteroid's surface over time.
-
- The sample between
3.5 to 8.8 ounces (100 to 250 grams) of rocky space rubble collected from the
asteroid Bennu's surface. It hurtled
back to Earth at speeds of up to 27,000 mph on September 24, 2023, fter a
seven-year, 4 billion-mile roundtrip, the capsule deployed its parachute and
safely landed in the Utah desert before being transported to Johnson Space
Center, where scientists have begun analyzing its contents for signs of life
beyond our planet.
-
- This is the
biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth. Carbon and water molecules are exactly the
elements we wanted to find. They're crucial elements in the formation of our
own planet, and they're going to help us determine the origins of elements that
could have led to life.
-
- Earth's water is
older than the planet itself and was probably brought here by asteroid and
comet impacts. But water wasn't the only material asteroids brought to Earth:
The building blocks of life likely hitched a ride on a space rock, too. Bennu
is a B-type asteroid, which means it contains high amounts of carbon and,
potentially, many of the primordial molecules present when life emerged on
Earth.
-
- Some of these
building blocks, including “uracil”, one of the nucleobases for RNA, were
recently found on the asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which
returned to Earth with its rock sample in 2020. OSIRIS-REx mission scientists
are hoping to find other potential precursors for Earth's biology inside the
Bennu sample.
-
- The bounty of
carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals
are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg.
These discoveries propel us on a journey to understand not only our
celestial neighborhood but also the potential for life's beginnings. With each
revelation from Bennu, we draw closer to unraveling the mysteries of our cosmic
heritage.
-
- The sample was
collected after nearly two years of fraught searching for a landing site on
Bennu's craggy surface. Upon contact with the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx fired a
burst of nitrogen not only to stick the
landing but to prevent the craft from sinking through the asteroid.
-
- The blast sent
rocks and dust careening around the craft, and some of that rocky debris landed
in a canister aboard OSIRIS-REx. A follow-up blast of OSIRIS-REx's thrusters
later lifted it from Bennu, and the spacecraft completed a number of flyovers
before leaving the asteroid for Earth in May 2021.
-
- Tiny particles of
rock gathered from the asteroid Ryugu are some of the most primordial bits of
material ever examined on Earth and could give us a glimpse into the origins of
the solar system.
-
- Asteroid “162173
Ryugu” measures about 2,953 feet in diameter and orbits the sun between Earth
and Mars, occasionally crossing Earth's orbit.
The carbonaceous, or C-type, asteroid spins like a top as it hurtles
through space, and like other C-type asteroids, Ryugu likely contains material
from the nebula (giant cloud of dust and gas) that gave birth to the sun and
its planets billions of years ago.
-
- The pitch-dark
asteroid bits reflect only about 2% to 3% of the light that hits them. The
samples' bulk density, the mass of the particles divided by the total volume
they occupy, was lower than that of known carbonaceous meteorites. This finding
hints that the rocks are highly porous, meaning that between the individual
grains of materials in the rocks exist many pockets of empty space that would
allow water and gas to seep through.
-
- Hyperspectral
microscopy was used to take a closer look at the composition of the asteroid
samples. The microscope works by illuminating the samples with different
wavelengths of light in the visible and infrared spectra and snapping
high-resolution pictures as it does so. Each snapshot measures about 0.2 by 0.2
inches, and each individual pixel provides data on the microscopic scale. In
this way, the team revealed fine details of the rocks' color, structure and
chemical composition.
-
- Snapshots of the
Ryugu samples revealed that the rock particles are composed of a "hydrated
matrix," which includes materials such as clay, with carbon-based
compounds embedded throughout. Some of
the material properties were close to those of the carbonaceous
chondrites," a class of carbonous meteorites.
-
- The Ryugu samples
are among the darkest ever examined.
They discovered traces of ammonia-rich compounds in the rock, which
could have some implications regarding the origin of Ryugu and our
understanding of primordial material.
-
- These initial
analyses represent the first step in figuring out what Ryugu can tell us about
the early solar system, but exposing all of the space rocks' secrets will take
some time.
-
- These additional
techniques will include various chemical analyses, which can reveal the
chronological history of when the asteroid first formed and at what ages it
came into contact with water.
-
- Further
assessments of the organic compounds and minerals in the samples will also
provide key information about how the asteroid and its original body first
formed. Researchers can also examine the volatile compounds, or those that can
be easily vaporized, within the samples; these sorts of tests can reveal how
solar winds shaped the asteroid's surface over time. We have more work to do. Universe secrets come slowly.
-
-
November 14, 2023
ASTEROIDS - what can we learn? 4221
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