The size of asteroid Bennu, which is 1,614 feet (492 meters) wide, is compared with the Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower in this NASA image.Posted on 03/13/2018 6:30:05 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Bennu has a shape that looks a bit like a spinning top. It is roughly 500 meters (1,640 feet) in diameter and orbits the sun once every 1.2 years, or 436.604 days. Every six years or so, it comes very close to Earth — about 0.002 AU, according to the University of Arizona. (... well within the orbit of Earth's moon.)
Bennu is part of a small class of carbonaceous (dark) asteroids that likely have primitive materials in them. Called a B-type class, Bennu and other asteroids like it have materials such as volatiles (compounds with a low boiling point), amino acids and organic molecules that are all may have been precursors to life on Earth...
Measurements through telescopes...suggest that Bennu has a density less than rock, according to NASA. The agency describes Bennu as a "rubble pile" that is a loosely-held-together group of dust, rock and boulders with gaps inside. Spitzer Space Telescope observations in 2007 suggested that Bennu has moderate-sized regolith (soil) grains across its surface; multiple other observations also hint that Bennu is likely a smooth object.
Because Bennu is so dark, it tends to absorb the sun's radiation. Bennu then radiates this in turn as heat, which affects its orbit. This "push" on Bennu's orbit is called the Yarkovsky effect.
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OSIRIS-ReX will also document the sample site, map the asteroid, measure the Yarkovsky effect and compare its observations to ground-based telescopes...
The scientists are also hunting for organic matter, which includes molecules such as carbon and hydrogen. Organics are key to life on Earth. While not all organic molecules are for life processes, studying them on locations such as Bennu give scientists an idea as to how organics might have spurred the origin of life.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
The size of asteroid Bennu, which is 1,614 feet (492 meters) wide, is compared with the Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower in this NASA image.That would make quite a hole in the earth.......................
Astronomers claim it is a “rock pile” asteroid. Maybe it would break up as it entered the atmosphere.
It’ll make a bunch of big holes.............
This is the sole concern of popular space science anymore.
Organics did not spur anything. God did it all.
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