NASA has used advanced imaging techniques to peer into samples of an asteroid, discovering extensive networks of cracks running through the rock particles.
What is it?
These images show two different views of two small rock particles collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe asteroid Bennu. NASA has peered into the samples using X-ray computed tomography (XCT), a special type of imaging that can reveal the interior of objects without damaging them.
These scans have revealed that the samples contain networks of fine cracks. Scientists can now use this discovery to understand why Bennu appears to have such low thermal inertia, meaning that its surface heats and cools rapidly as different surfaces of the asteroid rotate in and out of sunlight.
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One theory to explain this feature of Bennu was that the object may be more porous than telescopic observations of it suggest stone-strewn surface proposed. However, scientists needed a detailed analysis of the asteroid samples to confirm this theory – and that’s what they just got.
“It turns out they’re also cracked, and that was the missing piece of the puzzle,” said Andrew Ryan, who led the OSIRIS-REx sample physical and thermal analysis task force. in a statement from NASA.
Why is it amazing?
These images provide a rare look inside a piece of the early solar system. This study could help scientists better predict the structures of asteroids based on the thermal properties we can observe from Earth using telescopes and other instruments — in other words, without having to collect physical samples.
In September 2023, NASA returned samples of the asteroid Bennu collected by the historic OSIRIS-REx mission. The samples landed in the Utah desert after OSIRIS-REx made a 4 billion mile (6.2 billion kilometer) journey from Earth to Bennu and back again.
NASA has studied the Bennu samples, and has already discovered that they contains amino acids – some of the “building blocks” of life as we know it – and appear to be older than our own solar system.
