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Preliminary analysis of the Hayabusa2 samples returned from asteroid Ryugu
- stevespang 5y ago
- bubblehack3r 5y agoTl;dr?
- robin_reala 5y agoIn scientific papers the bit headed Abstract is basically the tl;dr, you can skip the rest.
- ncmncm 5y agoIn typical papers, what the abstract says contradicts what the graphs say, and what the conclusion says; and the graphs contradict the conclusion. Papers where they all match are exceptional and precious. But we cannot trust that just any paper is among them, even those published in Nature.
- herodotus 5y agoAs far as I can tell: (1) Yes indeed, the composition of the samples was not degraded when they were collected and returned to earth. (2) The samples indicate that Ryugu is similar to Cl chondrites (break up easily when entering earth, therefore only small fragments collected on earth; rich in volatile elements, representative of the chemical composition of our solar system) BUT Ryugu is less reflective, more porous and more fragile even than Cl chondrites. Therefore (in my non-expert opinion): well worth the effort to collect and study because we will never find anything similar from a Meteor so these samples will give us much more evidence about the solar system's chemical composition.
- adolph 5y agoPicture is here (from last year): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01585-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01585-9 Looks a little like coffee grounds in a grinder, only if you ground charcoal.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- CrazyCatDog 5y agoI found the bit about whether the samples may have been altered in final transit interesting as well as the artificial crater created by landing—the rest, per my layman eye, is effectively reporting means, nothing interesting yet…
- rurban 5y agoI find it extremely interesting that all remote sensing analysis was confirmed by onsite analysis. That means we can trust our remote sensing capabilities.
- tgv 5y agoI think the phrase "on-asteroid measurements" can already lay claim to the title "concise understatement of the year".
- gitgrump 5y agoSeriously. Humans managed to send a robot to a rock hurtling through the universe, and then took pieces back to look at. And it feels so normal! This is awesome stuff.
- pmayrgundter 5y agoJust reading up on Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and the NASA's OSIRIS-REx. They all targeted large (~1km) Apollo group asteroids (Itokawa, Ryugu, Bennu respectively). The asteroid that has had the highest probability of collision with Earth (1950 DA) was also an ~1km Apollo group asteroid, and Apollo asteroids are the source of almost all of the known Potentially Hazardous Objects for Earth. The stated objectives for these missions is basic science, such as understanding the proto-planetary conditions of our solar system. That makes sense and also near-Earth asteroids are practical targets for missions! But it seems likely to me that someone is also building profiles for interception, should we need it. So it's curious that hazard profiling isn't mentioned in the objectives for these missions (not that I can find.. correction appreciated!) That makes me wonder if there's something else out there not being talked about. And Osiris Rex would be King God of the Dead... shrug, nothing to see here ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_asteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_asteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25143_Itokawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25143_Itokawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(29075)_1950_DA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(29075)_1950_DA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object#Largest_PHAs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object#L... https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2006/0602.shtml https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2006/0602.shtml
- czbond 5y agoWe'd better figure out Apophis in the next 100 years...
- pmayrgundter 5y agoAnd hope the current data is correct!
- 5y ago
- z3t4 5y agoIt's fascinating that the death of a star can bring life. Basically when a star dies there will be a lot of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen - the building blocks for life, and there are a lot of dead star remains floating around in space. It's almost like if the whole big bang process was made in order to create life.
- simonh 5y agoIf you look at a result, then at the conditions that lead to it, you could always say that it’s almost as though those conditions were intended to lead to that result. It’s somewhat tautological.
- pault 5y agoMaybe life is just an efficient way to increase entropy and thus it will arise wherever the requisite conditions are available.
- jazzyjackson 5y agoAnd it takes several cycles of life and death for a planetary cloud to build up the heavier metals. I've only had my requisite college chemistry, but it has always seemed peculiar/lucky/surprising to me that every element on the periodic table occurs on Earth (save for those unstable lab-made concoctions). It's unclear to me how common this condition is in the universe, but of course in an infinite universe everything is inevitable :)
- z3t4 5y agoYeh I've thought about that also that the earth has so many elements, while the Hayabusa2 asteroid is mostly carbon star-dust. However besides oxygen we are made mostly of carbon. And for example the amount of gold on earth is likely the same rate all across the universe give or take (it's not super common).
- nuker 5y ago> A total of 5.424 ± 0.217 g was collected from Ryugu That precision tho
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]