Highly Porous Rocks tagged posts

Highly Porous Rocks Responsible for Bennu’s Surprisingly Craggy Surface

The asteroid Bennu
OSIRIS-REx mission scientists thought sampling a piece of Bennu would be like a walk on the beach, but the surprisingly craggy surface proved to be more of a challenge.NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Using data from NASA OSIRIS-REx mission, scientists concluded that asteroids with highly porous rocks, such as Bennu, should lack fine-grained material on their surfaces.

Scientists thought asteroid Bennu’s surface would be like a sandy beach, abundant in fine sand and pebbles, which would have been perfect for collecting samples.Past telescope observations from Earth’s orbit had suggested the presence of large swaths of fine-grain material called fine regolith that’s smaller than a few centimeters.

But when the spacecraft of NASA’s University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid sa...

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