09 July 2022

The fascinating microgravity physics of asteroids

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission unleashed an unexpected explosion when it touched down on asteroid Bennu in October 2020 to collect a precious sample to carry home to Earth.

Mission scientists have described the dramatic sample retrieval, which led to surprising discoveries about the asteroid's nature, in two new studies. And the results aren't just intriguing: The researchers say that the findings might have implications for a possible future deflection mission, should the 1,640-feet-wide (500 meters) Bennu (one of the riskiest known near-Earth asteroids) ever threaten to impact the planet.

"We expected the surface to be pretty rigid, kind of like if you touch down on a gravel pile: a little bit of dust flying away and a few particles jumping up," Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx, mission told Space.com. 

"But as we were bringing back the images after the event, we were stunned," he continued. "We saw a giant wall of debris flying away from the sample side. For spacecraft operators, it was really frightening."

1 comment:

  1. Yeah well, I always thought there would be a big dust cloud when the lander touched down on the moon, back in 1969. But I sat and watched and it was less than Armstrong's boots lifted later on when he walked or tripped over, so I guess off Earth physics are a bit different from ... my backyard, at least.

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