APOD: Descending Toward Asteroid Bennu (2020 Oct 12)

[APOD Robot]

Descending Toward Asteroid Bennu

Explanation: What would it be like to land on an asteroid? Although no human has yet done it, NASA's robotic OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to attempt to touch the surface of asteroid 101955 Bennu next week. The goal is to collect a sample from the nearby minor planet for return to Earth for a detailed analysis in 2023. The featured video shows what it looks like to descend toward the 500-meter diamond-shaped asteroid, based on a digital map of Bennu's rocky surface constructed from image and surface data taken by OSIRIS-REx over the past 1.5 years. The video begins by showing a rapidly spinning Bennu -- much faster than its real rotation period of 4.3 hours. After the rotation stops, the virtual camera drops you down to just above the rugged surface and circles a house-sized rock outcrop named Simurgh, with the flatter outcrop Roc visible behind it. If the return sample reaches Earth successfully, it will be scrutinized for organic compounds that might have seeded a young Earth, rare or unusual elements and minerals, and clues about the early history of our Solar System.

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[MarkBour]

Not to be confused with Hayabusa or Hayabusa2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2
Hayabusa2 -- an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese space agency, JAXA. It follows on from the Hayabusa mission which returned asteroid samples in 2010. Hayabusa2 was launched on 3 December 2014 and rendezvoused with near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018. It surveyed the asteroid for a year and a half and took samples. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and is expected to return to Earth on 6 December 2020.

APOD has been giving great coverage of both the JAXA and NASA missions.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190312.html
is my favorite. If one searches on the main APOD page, for either Ryugu or Bennu, there have been a good number of updates.

[JohnD]

I really hope that this part of the mission goes well, especially after it was discovered that gas discharges from Bennu were blowing rocks off the surface towards the probe. If that had been known before (and how could it?) then a capture prodecure could have been used instead of the hazardous landing that is to come.
Good luck Osiris!

[Ann]

I really hope that this part of the mission goes well, especially after it was discovered that gas discharges from Bennu were blowing rocks off the surface towards the probe. If that had been known before (and how could it?) then a capture prodecure could have been used instead of the hazardous landing that is to come.
Good luck Osiris!

Yes, let's hope Bennu won't deflate like Flatman - I mean Arrokoth - while Isiris is in the process of landing on it!

viewtopic.php?f=31&p=307062#p307062

Ann

[orin stepanek]

Kinda reminds me of a cinnamon cookie with crumbly topping!

375px-BennuAsteroid.jpg (50.73 KiB) Viewed 4608 times

Yum; yum!🥮

[Chance]

Nice

[De58te]

Curious to know who or what painted the number 1 on a rock? You can see a classical font of the number 1 in white (The font of number 1 that has a flag and a serif or horizontal pedestal.) It is found when the camera zeroes on a large rock. Look at a rock above the peak of the large rock and about 10 or 20 feet farther away. You need to bring up the contrast and brightness because the color is rather dim at low levels. But once you see it, the number practically covers the entire side of the rock, you won't unsee it.

[JohnD]

Please cite the timing of this paradoelic experience!

[johnnydeep]

Please cite the timing of this paradoelic experience!

Plus a screen shot pointing to the purported "1". I see nothing so far, but I suffer from a lack of imagination

[bystander]

I really hope that this part of the mission goes well, especially after it was discovered that gas discharges from Bennu were blowing rocks off the surface towards the probe. If that had been known before (and how could it?) then a capture prodecure could have been used instead of the hazardous landing that is to come.
Good luck Osiris!

viewtopic.php?p=306111#p306111

[JohnD]

What's your point, bystander? All thise apers are from last year of this. No one knew that Bennu was so fizzy before then.

[bystander]

What's your point, bystander? ...

I really hope that this part of the mission goes well, especially after it was discovered that gas discharges from Bennu were blowing rocks off the surface towards the probe. ...

viewtopic.php?p=306111#p306111

Why Is Asteroid Bennu Ejecting Particles into Space?
NASA | JPL-Caltech | OSIRIS-REx | 2020 Sep 09

[JohnD]

Thnak you, bystander, the Chesley et al paper that the Nasa page linked to https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com ... 19JE006363 is interesting, and represents a feat of observation, to track so many particles from one viewpoint! It also introduced me to the concept of a Hill sphere'! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_sphere

[Forrest White]

It turned out that its soil is rich in organic matter and carbonates. The researchers were able to identify two populations of boulders on the asteroid, which differ in strength, both types having lower thermal inertia than expected. Many boulders have been seen with bright veins ranging from 3 to 15 centimeters thick and over a meter long, which have been identified as carbonates such as calcite, magnesite, dolomite and breinerite. This means that in the parental body of Bennu for a long time (thousands or millions of years), processes in which liquid water participated.