On 11 September 1999, an asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR ( Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research) project during a Near-Earth asteroid survey. The asteroid was too close to the Earth on 23 September 1999, which was observed extensively by the Arecibo Observatory and the Goldstone Deep Space Network using radar imaging. The asteroid was named 101955 Bennu, which was named after the ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. But why this asteroid is so special to us, will it destroy the Earth, let's know about it.
Image Credit - Wikipedia
As we know that Milky Way Galaxy is home to billions of stars, planets, and solar systems - a star with planets orbiting around it. Scientists estimate that there may be tens of billions of solar systems in our galaxy, perhaps even as many as 100 billion, and our solar system is also one of those, where various forms of life exist on a blue planet, known as Earth. But since ancient times, there has been a question in our mind that finally how did the earth, the sun and the moon came into existence, and therefore we went out on a journey in search of the answers to our questions. Our understanding of our solar system has evolved greatly over the last few decades. Through many theories, we have speculated about how our solar system must have been born, but can we prove these theories and assumptions?
See Also:-Hollow Moon Theory - Some Amazing Facts About Moon
Bennu is an ancient carbonaceous asteroid that completes an orbit around the Sun every 436.604 days (1.2 years) and every 6 years comes very close to Earth. According to scientists, Bennu was once a part of a very large carbon-rich asteroid that broke apart from it about 700 million to 2 billion years ago. It is likely to have formed in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and since then has drifted much closer to Earth. During its close approach to Earth, we can easily study it. And for this purpose, OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) launched on September 8, 2016, whose main mission is to land on Asteroid Bennu, collecting its samples and return back to Earth. This is not as easy as it sounds, this mission will take a total of seven years to complete and by September 24, 2023, OSIRIS-REx will be back on Earth if everything goes according to the mission. The total cost of this mission is $800 million. But what is the benefit of doing this mission? Is it necessary to study the asteroid? Well, several asteroid missions have been done even before OSIRIS-REx. Among these missions, NASA's NEAR Shoemaker, and JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa and Hayabusa2. NASA's NEAR Shoemaker's purpose was to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The purpose of the HAYABUSA mission was to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. JAXA Hayabusa2 was developed for the purpose of studying the asteroid Ryugu and collecting samples to bring to Earth for analysis. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and is expected to return to Earth in late 2020. Hayabusa 2 will explore not only the origins of the planets but also the origin of the water of Earth’s oceans and the source of life.
See Also:-Project A119 - A top-secret plan by the US to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon
In the OSIRIS-REx mission being done on Bennu, for the first time, we will try to collect a large amount of samples and bring them back to Earth by landing on an asteroid in a successful manner. On December 3, 2018, after a nearly two-year-long journey, OSIRIS-REx had reached very close to Bennu and had also sent several detailed pictures of Bennu from there. From these pictures, we are able to see an asteroid so closely for the first time. According to NASA, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on 18 June 2019 managed to get even closer and capture an image at a distance of 600 meters from Bennu's surface. Before attempting to obtain a sample from the asteroid, it will map out Bennu's surface in detail and orbit the asteroid to calculate its mass. But this question must surely arise in the mind of all of you, why it is so important to study this asteroid, well we have already said above that we humans have been looking for the answer to this question since ancient times, how did our solar system came into existence and Bennu can surely help us in finding the answer to this question. By studying the mineralogy and chemical nature of Bennu, we can know how the creation of the solar system started in the early stages. The Bennu is quite special compared to other asteroids and has a roughly spheroidal shape, resembling a spinning top, which makes one full rotation on its axis every 4.3 hours. But this rotation speed of Bennu is increasing with time due to YORP effect, an effect that changes the rotation state of an asteroid - that is, asteroid spin rate and pole orientation. It mainly happens due to a force acting on a rotating body in space caused by the anisotropic emission of thermal photons, which carry momentum. This increase in rotation of Bennu is changing its trajectory over time due to its irregular shape, due to which it can become a threat to us in the future. According to calculations, scientists say that on 23 September 2060, Bennu will pass about 750,000 km away from the earth that will be too dim to be seen with common binoculars. And on 25 September 2135, it will pass 300,000 km away from earth, which is roughly equal to the Earth's distance from the moon. And then on 25 September 2175, when it will come close to the earth again, there will be 1 in 24,000 chance of an Earth impact. But the most threatening virtual impactor is on 24 September 2196 when there is a 1 in 11,000 chance of an Earth impact. Bennu has a mean diameter of 490 m and an asteroid of this size has the power to destroy an entire city. If bennu accidentally collides with the earth, it can cause us a lot of damage, but there is still a lot of time in it, for the time being we are studying Bennu which will soon help us in answering our questions. For this we just have to wait until 2023 when OSIRIS-REX returns to Earth after completing its mission.
See Also:-Some Amazing Facts about Uranus
As we know that Milky Way Galaxy is home to billions of stars, planets, and solar systems - a star with planets orbiting around it. Scientists estimate that there may be tens of billions of solar systems in our galaxy, perhaps even as many as 100 billion, and our solar system is also one of those, where various forms of life exist on a blue planet, known as Earth. But since ancient times, there has been a question in our mind that finally how did the earth, the sun and the moon came into existence, and therefore we went out on a journey in search of the answers to our questions. Our understanding of our solar system has evolved greatly over the last few decades. Through many theories, we have speculated about how our solar system must have been born, but can we prove these theories and assumptions?
See Also:-Hollow Moon Theory - Some Amazing Facts About Moon
Bennu is an ancient carbonaceous asteroid that completes an orbit around the Sun every 436.604 days (1.2 years) and every 6 years comes very close to Earth. According to scientists, Bennu was once a part of a very large carbon-rich asteroid that broke apart from it about 700 million to 2 billion years ago. It is likely to have formed in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and since then has drifted much closer to Earth. During its close approach to Earth, we can easily study it. And for this purpose, OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) launched on September 8, 2016, whose main mission is to land on Asteroid Bennu, collecting its samples and return back to Earth. This is not as easy as it sounds, this mission will take a total of seven years to complete and by September 24, 2023, OSIRIS-REx will be back on Earth if everything goes according to the mission. The total cost of this mission is $800 million. But what is the benefit of doing this mission? Is it necessary to study the asteroid? Well, several asteroid missions have been done even before OSIRIS-REx. Among these missions, NASA's NEAR Shoemaker, and JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa and Hayabusa2. NASA's NEAR Shoemaker's purpose was to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The purpose of the HAYABUSA mission was to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. JAXA Hayabusa2 was developed for the purpose of studying the asteroid Ryugu and collecting samples to bring to Earth for analysis. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and is expected to return to Earth in late 2020. Hayabusa 2 will explore not only the origins of the planets but also the origin of the water of Earth’s oceans and the source of life.
See Also:-Project A119 - A top-secret plan by the US to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon
In the OSIRIS-REx mission being done on Bennu, for the first time, we will try to collect a large amount of samples and bring them back to Earth by landing on an asteroid in a successful manner. On December 3, 2018, after a nearly two-year-long journey, OSIRIS-REx had reached very close to Bennu and had also sent several detailed pictures of Bennu from there. From these pictures, we are able to see an asteroid so closely for the first time. According to NASA, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on 18 June 2019 managed to get even closer and capture an image at a distance of 600 meters from Bennu's surface. Before attempting to obtain a sample from the asteroid, it will map out Bennu's surface in detail and orbit the asteroid to calculate its mass. But this question must surely arise in the mind of all of you, why it is so important to study this asteroid, well we have already said above that we humans have been looking for the answer to this question since ancient times, how did our solar system came into existence and Bennu can surely help us in finding the answer to this question. By studying the mineralogy and chemical nature of Bennu, we can know how the creation of the solar system started in the early stages. The Bennu is quite special compared to other asteroids and has a roughly spheroidal shape, resembling a spinning top, which makes one full rotation on its axis every 4.3 hours. But this rotation speed of Bennu is increasing with time due to YORP effect, an effect that changes the rotation state of an asteroid - that is, asteroid spin rate and pole orientation. It mainly happens due to a force acting on a rotating body in space caused by the anisotropic emission of thermal photons, which carry momentum. This increase in rotation of Bennu is changing its trajectory over time due to its irregular shape, due to which it can become a threat to us in the future. According to calculations, scientists say that on 23 September 2060, Bennu will pass about 750,000 km away from the earth that will be too dim to be seen with common binoculars. And on 25 September 2135, it will pass 300,000 km away from earth, which is roughly equal to the Earth's distance from the moon. And then on 25 September 2175, when it will come close to the earth again, there will be 1 in 24,000 chance of an Earth impact. But the most threatening virtual impactor is on 24 September 2196 when there is a 1 in 11,000 chance of an Earth impact. Bennu has a mean diameter of 490 m and an asteroid of this size has the power to destroy an entire city. If bennu accidentally collides with the earth, it can cause us a lot of damage, but there is still a lot of time in it, for the time being we are studying Bennu which will soon help us in answering our questions. For this we just have to wait until 2023 when OSIRIS-REX returns to Earth after completing its mission.
See Also:-Some Amazing Facts about Uranus
0 comments:
Post a Comment