Nearly two years in the past, NASA made historical past when its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly “tagged” 101955 Bennu to gather a regolith pattern from the floor of the asteroid. While the mission gained’t return to Earth till late subsequent yr, NASA shared new details about the celestial physique. In an replace revealed this week (through Mashable), the company revealed OSIRIS-REx would have sunk into Bennu had the spacecraft not instantly fired its thrusters after touching the asteroid’s floor.
“It seems that the particles making up Bennu’s exterior are so loosely packed and calmly sure to one another that if an individual had been to step onto Bennu they’d really feel little or no resistance, as if stepping right into a pit of plastic balls which are common play areas for teenagers,” NASA stated.
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That’s not what scientists thought they’d discover on Bennu. Observing the asteroid from Earth, the expectation was that its floor can be coated in easy, sandy beach-like materials. Bennu’s response to OSIRIS-REx’s landing additionally had scientists puzzled. After briefly interacting with the asteroid, the spacecraft left a 26-foot (8-meter) vast crater. In lab testing, the pickup process “barely made a divot.”
After analyzing information from the spacecraft, they discovered it encountered the identical quantity of resistance an individual on Earth would really feel whereas squeezing the plunger on a French press espresso carafe. “By the time we fired our thrusters to leave the surface, we were still plunging into the asteroid,” stated Ron Ballouz, a scientist with the OSIRIS-REx crew.
According to NASA, its findings on Bennu might assist scientists higher interpret distant observations of different asteroids. In flip, that would assist the company design future asteroid missions. “I think we’re still at the beginning of understanding what these bodies are, because they behave in very counterintuitive ways,” stated OSIRIS-REx crew member Patrick Michel.