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Features of exfoliation on a rock face (a) and on boulders (bf) of varying size and position on the asteroid Bennu from images taken by NASA’s OSIRIS-REX space probe. The glowing dome on the horizon of panel (a) is a boulder behind the exfoliating cliff. Credits: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona
A team of researchers affiliated with a number of institutions in the United States, Canada and Italy found that studying the craters of the asteroid Bennu allowed them to calculate how long it has orbited near Earth. In their article published in the journal Nature, the team describes their study of the craters formed on the boulders of the asteroid.
Asteroid Bennu has been making headlines lately. It is the asteroid on which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft recently landed, collecting samples. That mission marked the first time NASA has landed and collected samples from an asteroid. In this new effort, the researchers used data from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to calculate how long the asteroid has orbited near Earth.
To find out more about the asteroid’s age and its time spent in orbit near Earth, the researchers focused their efforts on craters in the boulders on the asteroid’s surface. Previous research has suggested that Bennu was once part of a larger body and was shot down by a collision with another object while orbiting the circumstellar disk, an asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
After the collision, the researchers believe that Bennu slowly emerged from the asteroid belt. During that time, it was hit by other objects, some of which hit boulders on its surface, causing large craters. After exiting the asteroid belt, Bennu continued to be hit by other smaller objects, some of which even hit boulders on its surface, but researchers with this new effort believe those new hits resulted in smaller impact craters. . And since Bennu has moved into a near-Earth orbit, those smaller craters represent the timeline of its move to the new orbit. By studying the size and depth of those craters using data from OSIRIS-Rex, the researchers were able to estimate their age – around 1.75 million years – which also shows how long Bennu has been in an orbit. close to the Earth.
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R.-L. Ballouz et al. Life near Bennu Land of 1.75 million years deduced from the craters on its boulders, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038 / s41586-020-2846-z
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Quote: Study of craters on asteroid Bennu shows how long it has been orbiting near Earth (2020, October 28) recovered October 28, 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-10-craters-asteroid-bennu-orbiting -earth. html
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