Scientists finally look at prime samples captured by OSIRIS-REx of the asteroid Bennu
Click for original image.
Scientists have finally opened the sample capsule from OSIRIS-REx to see the prime asteroid material obtained from the asteroid Bennu during the spacecraft’s touch-and-go sample grab.
The captured material inside the capsule can be seen in the picture to the right. It is the debris inside the ring.
Erika Blumenfeld, creative lead for the Advanced Imaging and Visualization of Astromaterials (AIVA) and Joe Aebersold, AIVA project lead, captured this photograph of the open TAGSAM head including the asteroid material inside using manual high-resolution precision photography and a semi-automated focus stacking procedure. The result is an image that shows extreme detail of the sample.
Next, the curation team will remove the round metal collar and prepare the glovebox to transfer the remaining sample from the TAGSAM head into pie-wedge sample trays.
The final mass of material will be determined once it is removed and weighed, though the team has already recovered more than 70 grams that had clung to the outside the capsule, which in itself exceeded the mission’s targeted goal.
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Click for original image.
Scientists have finally opened the sample capsule from OSIRIS-REx to see the prime asteroid material obtained from the asteroid Bennu during the spacecraft’s touch-and-go sample grab.
The captured material inside the capsule can be seen in the picture to the right. It is the debris inside the ring.
Erika Blumenfeld, creative lead for the Advanced Imaging and Visualization of Astromaterials (AIVA) and Joe Aebersold, AIVA project lead, captured this photograph of the open TAGSAM head including the asteroid material inside using manual high-resolution precision photography and a semi-automated focus stacking procedure. The result is an image that shows extreme detail of the sample.
Next, the curation team will remove the round metal collar and prepare the glovebox to transfer the remaining sample from the TAGSAM head into pie-wedge sample trays.
The final mass of material will be determined once it is removed and weighed, though the team has already recovered more than 70 grams that had clung to the outside the capsule, which in itself exceeded the mission’s targeted goal.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
FYI the image link has ?resize on the end, so you only get 1200 x 900 instead of the enormous original at 11648 x 8736.
So, examination of the pic on maximum resolution shows the inner liner has larger rocks that have either pierced the liner or pushed it aside. I know that elasticity decreases markedly in colder temperatures. Any thoughts on materials used? Similarly, is the whitish material in the picture sample media or liner debris?
I have an ideal how big this actually is, but how big is this?
If I’m recalling this correctly- didn’t they have to drill through some screws to open this up?
Does this image show the aftereffects of any of that work?
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
“It’s Growing….”
https://youtu.be/9Irf9F2RB2M
(2:52)
Envirocat asked: “is the whitish material in the picture sample media or liner debris?”
It looks to me like the whitish material may be the bottom of the sample container, that the sample is not very deep (perhaps one layer of grainy/dusty material) and is nonexistent in a few areas. In black and white,* the whitish material looks similar to the nuts that are visible.
_________________
wayne asked: “I have an ideal how big this actually is, but how big is this?”
From my extremely well calibrated eye and years of designing somewhat similar scientific instruments, I suspect that the empty threads are for number 4 screws. Maybe number 6, but probably not number 2. Number 4 is 0.112″ outside diameter, making the ring containing the sample about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in width, so the outside diameter is somewhere around 12″ (33-ish cm) and the inside diameter around 10″ (25-ish cm).
“If I’m recalling this correctly- didn’t they have to drill through some screws to open this up? Does this image show the aftereffects of any of that work?”
I don’t see any scratches, shavings, burrs, or anything that suggests they had any trouble taking it apart. The later reports seemed to suggest that they didn’t drill out the screws but made a tool to remove the screws in a way that prevented contamination of the sample.
“‘It’s Growing….’”
wayne,
did you see that flicker in that grain in the upper right of the picture? You didn’t change the lighting, did you?
Oh, that was me! That was me. I changed the brightness on my computer. False alarm. Everyone calm down while my heart rate recovers.
_________________
* Although the center looks a bit like sepia, so maybe it isn’t as black and white as I think it is.
Let me guess:
It’s ORGANICS! FULL of hydrocarbons!
And they haven’t a ‘clue”….
Well, I have a clue.