Bennu catch-up
“Scientists will receive a treasure trove of new information about the history and evolution of our
Solar System”
Bennu’s welcoming shot
was finally (1.4-million-mile) journey, OSIRIS-REx
After a two-year, 2.2-million-kilometre
its approach, to Bennu. On 2 December 2018, on making its highly anticipated approach
(eight-inch) PolyCam to work in photographing the spacecraft put its 20-centimetre
of 12 images was a beautiful mosaic image consisting
Bennu in fantastic detail. The result
away. taken from just 24 kilometres (15 miles)
of the were also able to construct a 3D model
Using the same images astronomers and
small as six metres (20 feet). The observations asteroid, demonstrating features as astronomers
the then-mysterious ball of rock that model confirmed many aspects about
only outlier rotation speed and inclination. The predicted, such as its shape, diameter,
model pole of the asteroid. The ground-based was a large boulder near the south observations
metres (33 feet) in height, but up-close suggested the boulder would be 10 55
(164-feet) high, with a width of approximately showed it to be closer to 50-metres metres (180 feet).
Another source of water found
OSIRIS-REx is already making fascinating discoveries about Bennu – and it hasn’t even collected a sample yet! The first major discovery from this mission was made by two of its instruments, the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES). These instruments revealed the presence of water inside the clays that make up the asteroid. These ‘hydroxyls’, which are molecules containing hydrogen and oxygen, exist over the entire asteroid and could hold important clues about the origins of Earth’s water.
“The presence of hydrated minerals across the asteroid confirms that Bennu, a remnant from early in the formation of the Solar System, is an excellent specimen for the OSIRIS-REx mission to study the composition of primitive volatiles and organics,” says Amy Simon, OVIRS deputy instrument scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, United
will States. “When samples of this material are returned by the mission to Earth in 2023, scientists receive a treasure trove of new information about the history and evolution of our Solar System.”
Improving asteroid tracking with OSIRIS-REx
early
When OSIRIS-REx made its approach in
close-up December 2018, this began a near two-year,
asteroid has adventure to find out what this intriguing
a manifesto to offer. On its approach NASA compiled
mission. to explain the importance of the OSIRIS-REx
asteroids,
It aim to understand the forces that move
improve help in detecting hazardous objects and predictions of any potential collisions.
of a mile) As Bennu is about half a kilometre (a third
reach the wide, Bennu is large enough to potentially
damage. surface of the Earth and cause widespread
asteroid’s These observations will keep track of the location to within a few kilometres.
its
Scientists have found it hard to estimate
the future trajectory around the Sun due to
Sun and gravitational interference of Earth, the
Bennu’s other objects. This is why predictions for
are a lot trajectory get fuzzy around 2060. “There
of of factors that might affect the predictability
of them Bennu's trajectory in the future, but most
an asteroid are relatively small,” says William Bottke,
in Boulder, expert at the Southwest Research Institute
scientist Colorado, United States, and a participating
most on the OSIRIS-REx mission. "The one that's sizeable is Yarkovsky.”
examination These are just a few benefits of asteroid
in a that will benefit our understanding of asteroids scientific sense and in a tracking sense.