Posted on 03/17/2020 6:19:14 AM PDT by BenLurkin
As an ancient, carbon-rich asteroid, Ryugu is thought to be a time capsule of solar system history. To read that history, Hayabusa2 explored Ryugu from June 2018 to November 2019, and grabbed two samples from the asteroid to bring back to Earth (SN: 7/11/19).
Hayabusa2 observed how the asteroid’s surface retained and released heat, a clue to its composition and structure. Dense rocks take in heat slowly and hold that heat for longer; more porous rocks change temperature quickly, like sand on a beach.
Ryugu’s heat map shows that it’s about 50 percent porous, meaning half of it is holes, Okada and colleagues report. Even most of the asteroid’s large boulders appear porous.
That airiness fits with the idea that Ryugu is a rubble pile formed after the breakup of a larger body some 700 million years ago (SN: 3/20/19). But the new observations suggest that parent body might have been porous, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
I always knew Sanka had the potential to destroy the Earth.
I think that we always knew, but dared not speak of it openly.
The samples collected won’t get back until December this year. Hopefully better than that probe that crashed in Utah because something went wrong.
Postum. That’s the real threat...
That probe that crashed in Utah? Turns out the accelerometer was soldered in backwards! Fortunately NASA was able to salvage from the crash enough good samples to make the mission a success anyways.
Is there a Toilet Paper Asteroid we could possibly collide with?
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