The Universe Revealed is my attempt to discuss more thoroughly the main questions that we humans should ask about our existence, our universe and our place in it. These are mostly my thoughts on science, religion and philosophy as it applies to the...
What's all the fuss about this asteroid Bennu? There are two reasons this particular asteroid is important. One is that it's a carbonaceous asteroid and as such might contain organic compounds that could be the precursors to life. The other is that it's could be on a collision course with Earth.
The official name for this asteroid is 101955 Bennu. Although this asteroid is not as large at the one that killed off the dinosaurs it would still cause a lot of serious damage if it did collide with Earth.
Bennu was discovered in 1999, and subsequent observations have determined that it has a diameter of 484 meters with a mass of 6 to 7.76 times 10 to the 10th power kilograms. It's current orbit crosses that of Earth's and there is a 1 in roughly 2000 chance that it will collide with Earth. This sounds like no big deal, but it still makes Bennu dangerous.
The asteroid Bennu is also under the influence of both Jupiter and the Yarkovsky effect. I've already discussed this phenomenon.
What's very interesting about this particular asteroid is that NASA intends to send a probe there. This will be done during the OSIRIS-Rex mission with a launch date of September 8, 2016, which has already been completed. This mission will attempt to obtain a sample of the asteroid and bring back to Earth. The sample will be obtained with the TAGSAM instrument. This is a robotic arm that will blast nitrogen at the asteroid to blow regolith up so that it can be collected. The probe will also image the asteroid completely to determine its shape and mass more accurately. It will also obtain a spectra of the asteroid and measure the Yarkovsky effect. A return capsule will be sent back to Earth with the goodies.
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This mission is imperative to a understanding of asteroids in general and carbonaceous asteroids in particular. It's a good idea to know all about your enemy if said enemy could attack you. The other idea of determining if organic compounds germane to life formation exist on these asteroids is most important. I believe that we're going to see more interest in asteroids, especially if they discover life-forming chemicals on Bennu. This would make the theory that life came from outer space more valid.
