3 hours ago
Photo author, NASA / Goddard / UoA
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The American space probe Osiris-Rex completed an ambitious mission and collected rock samples from the asteroid Bennu, which has accompanied it in space since 2018.
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The probe approached the surface of a celestial body with a diameter of 500 meters, known as the asteroid Bennu, literally for a few seconds.
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NASA called the maneuver the “high-five” – the short landing of the probe reminded them of the clap of two palms. To collect the samples, the probe used a jet of gas to knock them out of the rock.
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Scientists hope that Osiris-Rex was able to capture at least a few handfuls of cosmic dust. The researchers would like to receive at least 60 grams, but with a successful approach, it will be possible to send about a kilogram of rock to Earth.
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How much soil was collected will become clear only after a few days.
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The probe’s cargo could potentially be the largest in weight that has been brought to Earth from space since the Apollo 11 astronauts brought lunar soil samples to our planet about 50 years ago.
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The size of the Empire State Building
The contact with the asteroid Bennu was scheduled for 01:15 AM Moscow time. It happened at a distance of 330 million kilometers from the Earth. It was possible to watch him on the website and in the social networks of NASA.
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The soil extraction procedure was fully automated. This is an absolute must. The radio signal from the Earth to the point of contact of the probe with the asteroid takes 18 minutes. Therefore, the controllers at the Mission Control Center could not manually control this maneuver.
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Asteroid Bennu is an interesting celestial body. It is about the size of the New York Empire State Building and is shaped like a spinning top.
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Researchers believe that Bennu belongs to the class of so-called coal or carbon asteroids. This means that most of the chemical elements that existed 4.5 billion years ago, when the planets and the Sun appeared, have been preserved in its rock. That is why scientists are so eager to deliver Bennu rock samples to terrestrial laboratories for study.
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Photo author, NASA / Goddard / UoA
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Bennu may contain elements that existed at the origin of the solar system, researchers say
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When the Osiris-Rex probe approached Benn in 2018, the researchers got scared.
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Observations from long distances with telescopes and radars indicated that the asteroid’s surface was likely to have a loose structure. However, the Osiris-Rex cameras showed that the surface of the minor planet is more like not sand, but a placer of large stones.
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To make matters worse, scientists have noticed that from time to time, pieces of rock are thrown off the asteroid into space.
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Because of this, finding a safe place for contact on the asteroid proved difficult. To select it, scientists had to study every centimeter of a celestial body.
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Photo author, NASA / Goddard / UoA
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NASA simulated the landing several times. This frame shows a probe for taking samples during one of these “rehearsals”
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After careful research, scientists have identified two points at which Osiris-Rex can land and take off from an asteroid without great danger.
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The first point, codenamed Nightingale, is an area about eight meters in diameter. It is slightly smaller than a tennis court or several parking spaces.
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The probe flew to this cramped area at low speed, avoiding obstacles using an automatic imaging system. The most serious obstacle was a two-story house high rock, which the researchers nicknamed “Mount Doom” – much like Mount Orodruin in John Ronald Ruel Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings saga.
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Five to ten seconds of contact
After landing, Osiris Rex released the sampling arm and pressed it into the ground.
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The annular end of the arm acts as a kind of “reverse vacuum cleaner”. When it touches the surface, a jet of nitrogen exits under high pressure, which raises a cloud of small pieces of rock.
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If everything worked out, then quite a lot of these debris should have ended up in a special tank.
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“We believe we will have five to 10 seconds on the surface, after which the probe will take off again, with the samples in the manipulator,” said Sandra Freund, Osiris-Rex project manager at Lockheed Martin Space, prior to the operation.
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While collecting the samples, the probe took photographs that will allow researchers to determine how well the process went and what might have gone wrong.
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However, it will take NASA a few more days to figure out how many samples were collected.
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If it turns out that there are few samples and a second attempt is necessary, then Osiris Rex will attempt to land at a point codenamed Osprey (Sea Hawk).
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In any case, the collected samples will go to Earth in a special capsule, which is to reach Earth in September 2023.
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NASA is also working closely with the Japan Space Agency, which launched the Hayabusa 2 probe, which last year collected soil samples from a different type of asteroid called Ryugu.
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A load of samples from Ryugu should reach Earth by December. Many scientists would like to study samples from both asteroids. Among them is Sarah Russell of the Natural History Museum in London.
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“We can learn a lot about the early history of the solar system by studying meteorites. But when these stones pass through the atmosphere and fall to Earth, they are always contaminated in some way,” she told the BBC.
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“So this is our chance to get a really clean sample and understand the primordial chemistry of the solar system,” says the scientist.
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