SETI Talks: Bennu: An Asteroid Full of Surprises

Recorded 17 August, 2022.

Since arriving at the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission has brought a wealth of observations of the near-Earth asteroid revealing at the same time a lot of surprises.

Bennu has proved to be consistently unpredictable. The OSIRIS-REx team found a rough surface littered with boulders instead of the smooth, sandy beach they had expected based on observations from Earth- and space-based telescopes. Researchers also discovered that Bennu was ejecting rock particles from its surface into space. Unusual, bright boulders on its surface seem to come from the main-belt asteroid, Vesta. And finally, a few weeks ago, measurements taken during the sampling collection revealed that the asteroid is so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that if a person were to step onto the asteroid, they would feel very little resistance. Bennu may have the same internal structure as a Plastic Ball Pit.

To discuss the key results provided by OSIRIS-REx, we invited three scientists involved in the mission, the data analysis and interpretation of these data. Chrysa Avdellidou, Planetary scientist at the Nice Observatory in France; Erica Jawin, Postdoctoral Research Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Saverio Cambioni, EAPS Distinguished Fellow at MIT.

Together with moderator Franck Marchis, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, the researchers discuss how they have used data from OSIRIS-REx to revisit our understanding of small solar system bodies and will tell us how expectations about the asteroid's surface were largely wrong.

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[mountianbreed]

So what you're saying is possible fragment impact wed get peppered by it's entering the ozone. Soft burns up solids
Punch through . I mean if we were to take a hit . That's my evaluation of what would happen .peace

[Sarah-okxq]

Is it worth it? Compared to what? All scarce resources have alternate uses, that's what scarcity means. "To me, yes..: well, that's reassuring. Can I get a "yay science!" The next time I collect data on observable human behavior and someone in "hard science" scoffs, I'll redirect them to this. Billion dollars worth of subjective valuation right here.