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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
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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.
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* 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.