In this series of images taken by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft, Bennu is shown a complete rotation from a distance of about 50 miles (80 km). The spacecraft’s polycam camera captured 36 2.2-millisecond frames over a period of four hours and 18 minutes. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona
New findings from NASA’s OSIRIRIS-Rex mission suggest that the interior of the asteroid Bennu may be weaker and less gait than its outer layers, like a chocolate-filled chocolate egg despite space.
The results appear in a study published in the journal Science progress And under the leadership of the University of Colorado Boulder OSIRIS-REx A team including professors Daniel Shishers and Jay McMahon. These findings could give scientists new insights into the evolution of the solar system’s asteroids – how a body like Bennu transforms over millions of years or more.
OSIRIS-Rex, together with Benu, is a planet orbiting the Sun at a distance of more than 200 million miles from Earth, then the project has been studied in more detail than any other planet in a spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin in Colorado. History of space exploration.
So far, however, one question has been kind: what is Ben like inside?
Figure of Bennu’s orbit in relation to Earth and other planets. Credit: NASA / Goddard / University of Rizona / Leheid Kahid Martin
Schishers, McMahon and colleagues on the mission’s radio science team now think they have the answer, or at least part of it. Using OSIRIS-Rex’s own navigational instruments and other tools, the group spent nearly two years mapping the flow and flow of Bennu’s gravitational field. Think about the height of an empire state building like taking an X-ray of a fraction of the average-width space debris.
“If you can measure the gravitational field with enough accuracy, it puts hard obstacles on where the mass is located, even if you can’t see it directly,” said Andrew French, co-author of the new study and a former graduate here. CU Boulder, is now NASAJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
What the team has got could also be a problem for Bennu. The origin of the asteroid seems weaker than its exterior, a fact that could jeopardize its very existence in the very distant future.
“You can probably imagine a whole thing flying in a million years or so,” said Shishares, a distinguished professor in the N&HJ Schmidt Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.
Evolution of asteroids
Of course, that’s part of the fun of studying asteroids. Shisher explained that Bennu belongs to a small body class that scientists call a “rubble pile” asteroid, which, as their name suggests, looks like a loosely held finger of debris.
Asteroids also change over time as people think.
“None of them have been sitting there since the beginning of the solar system.” “They have an effect like sunlight on how they spin and are replaced by things like collisions with other asteroids.”
To study how Bennu and other similar asteroids could change, however, he and his colleagues needed to take a peek inside.
On January 19, 2019, OSIRIS-Rex observed small bits of objects jumping from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA / Goddard / University Ari Rizona / LL Kahid Martin
This is where the team got lucky. When OSIRIS-Rex first reached Bennu, the spacecraft found something unusual: frequent and tiny little bits, some just the size of marble, seemed to pop the planet out of the belt and into space. In many cases, it orbits Bennu before the particles return to the surface. Members of the mission’s radio science team at JPL were able to witness how the body’s gravity works – much like Isaac Newton’s apocalyptic story predicts the existence of gravity after observing an apple fall on his head.
“It was a bit like someone was on the surface of a planet and throwing these marbles up so they could be found.” “Our colleagues can estimate the gravitational field in the path taken by those particles.”
Squishy Center
In a new study, Shihires and his colleagues linked those records of Benny’s gravity to data from OSIRIS-Rex itself – the exact measure of how an asteroid tugged into a spacecraft over a period of months. They discovered something surprising: before this mission began, many scientists assumed that Bennu would have a uniform body. As the skier said, “The gall of the rocks is the gleam of the rocks.”
But gravitational field measurements suggest something different. To illustrate those examples, some parts of Bennu’s interior will need to be built more tightly than others. And at least some of the asteroid gots in asteroids seem to lie around a separate bead at its equator and at its very core.
“It looks like there’s a void in the center of it, inside of which you can fill in some football fields,” Shishares said.
Now, thanks to the laser ultimatum data and high resolution image from OSIRIS-Rex, we can take a tour of Bennu’s remarkable terrain. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Asteroid spin may be responsible for the void. Scientists know that asteroids move faster and faster over time. It can speed up the building, Skier said, by slowly moving the material from the center of the asteroid and towards its surface. In other words, Bennu may be in the process of turning himself into pieces.
“If its core had a lower density, it would be easier to pull the entire asteroid,” Shishares said.
Scientifically, the new findings are bitter: after Bennu measured the gravitational field, Scheeres and his team largely wrapped up their work on the Osiris-Rex mission.
Their results have contributed to the mission’s sample analysis plan – currently in development. The returned sample will be analyzed to determine consistency between the grains – this is one of the main physical properties that affects the mass distribution seen in their study.
“We hope to find out what happened to these asteroids over time, which could give us a better understanding of how these tiny asteroids, which have changed over millions, hundreds of millions or billions of years, could change.” “Our findings exceeded our expectations.”
For more on this and related research, read NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Bennu Secrets Unlocked by Hist Hist Hist.
DJ Scissors, AS French, p. Tricarico, SR Chesley, y. Takahashi, d. Farnochia, J. W. McMahon, D.N. “Heterogeneous mass distribution of rubble-pile asteroids (101955) Bennu” by Brake, Abby Davis, R-L. Blouse, ER Jawan, b. Rositis, JP Emery, AJ Ryan, RS Park, BP Rush, n. Masterrodemos, B.M. Kennedy, j. Baleros, D.P. Lube, d. Welles, AT Vaughan, J.M. Leonard, j. Girard, b. . Page, p. Entreasian, e. Mazarico, k. Getzendenner, d. Rowlands, MC Moreau, j. Small, D.E. Highsmith, s. Gussens, E.E. Palmer, J.R. Weirich, R.W. Gaskell, O.S. Barnoin, M.G. Daly, J.A. Seabrock, MM Al Assad, LC Philpott, CL Johnson, CM Hartzel, VE Hamilton, p. Science progress.
DOI: 10.1126 / sciadv.abc3350
The University of Arizona leads the science operations for OSIRIS-Rex. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland manages the overall mission.
Other collaborators on the new study include Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, The Open University, University of Northern Arizona, KinetX Aerospace, Inc., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, University of York, University of York, University of York. Institute, University of C ડીte d’Azur and University of Ari Rizona.
