Discussion
The NASA app is one of the few that I permit all notifications for, got a good heads up on this and then their direct link for the NASA live pre show with all the animations and summaries.
Properly stokes the kids imagination.
Still have their boarding passes for the Artemis mission which is a cool touch from NASA!
Properly stokes the kids imagination.
Still have their boarding passes for the Artemis mission which is a cool touch from NASA!
annodomini2 said:
There's a high probability it'll hit the earth in the next 300yrs
That’s not what the Wikipedia article on the subject says. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu
There is a cumulative 1 in 1800 chance up to the year 2290, and it is more likely that Bennu will be destroyed (perhaps by being sucked into the sun, or flung off into outer space) before Earth impact ever happens.
I’ll be content with that, especially as I will dead and forgotten about in the not too distant future.
Pupp said:
Not being deliberately facetious but wouldn’t this material have ended up on the Earth soon enough anyway…?
No.And if it did, the material would no longer be pristine so of limited scientific value. Space material falls to the earth all the time. You can find it in your gutters if you apply the right techniques. The problem is that it will have been contaminated as it floated down through the atmosphere and lay in the gutter. So, not much use for science.
Eric Mc said:
No.
And if it did, the material would no longer be pristine so of limited scientific value. Space material falls to the earth all the time. You can find it in your gutters if you apply the right techniques. The problem is that it will have been contaminated as it floated down through the atmosphere and lay in the gutter. So, not much use for science.
I wasn't aware of that. A quick google suggests 'iron micrometeorites' are common.And if it did, the material would no longer be pristine so of limited scientific value. Space material falls to the earth all the time. You can find it in your gutters if you apply the right techniques. The problem is that it will have been contaminated as it floated down through the atmosphere and lay in the gutter. So, not much use for science.
Learn something knew every day.
SpudLink said:
I wasn't aware of that. A quick google suggests 'iron micrometeorites' are common.
Learn something knew every day.
The other type of space material (carbonaceous chondrites) is harder to separate from "earth dirt" because it is more or less the same stuff. The iron material stands out because there isn't much iron in earth dust and the iron particles can be extracted from the dirt in the gutter using a magnet.Learn something knew every day.
I know somebody who actually collects this stuff
The material from Bennu is carbonaceous - but we know for sure its not from earth because it was extracted directly from Bennu. That is one of the reasons why it is imperative that the Bennu material does not get contaminated by earth dirt as it is likely that it would be hard to tell the difference.
Looks like they got even more than they thought- the outside of the container head still had a pile of ancient space dirt sitting on it.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/11/na...
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/11/na...
Beati Dogu said:
Better keep the cleaners out of that room or it’ll get Hoovered up.
LOL imagine that. Reminds me of a secure lab I was involved in building a long time ago, turns out the cleaners had access and were unvetted. Nobody realised for months, and each morning they were in before anyone else doing their cleaning etc. 
They've been struggling to gain access to the main samples since October due to stuck fasteners that they couldn't undo.
They've finally managed to get the last 2 undon after making a couple of new tools.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/11/nasas...
They've finally managed to get the last 2 undon after making a couple of new tools.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/11/nasas...
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