Scientists finally look at prime samples captured by OSIRIS-REx of the asteroid Bennu
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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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!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
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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.