NASA spacecraft touched an asteroid, and the surface was 'fluffy'

The OSIRIS-REx mission exploded when it touched down on the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 to collect a sample.

The asteroid's nature was discovered in two new studies by the mission scientists. The findings may have implications for a future mission to Bennu, one of the riskiest asteroids.

Dante Lauretta is a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and the principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx.

We were shocked when we saw the images after the event. A wall of debris flew away from the sample side. It was frightening for the operators of the craft.

The missing craters suggest impact armoring to protect the surface.

Lauretta, the lead author of one of the studies, wanted the spacecraft to revisit the area to understand what happened. The OSIRIS-REx touchdown site was seen by the researchers six months after sample collection. Nightingale was located within the impact crater of Bennu. The scientists found a gaping hole in the surface with rubble and boulders scattered around the site.

Scientists had expected the scar to be about the same size as the sample collector. Lauretta said that they sank in. It was obvious that there was no resistance. The surface was soft.

Unlike the asteroid's surface, the probe's pristine material was unaffected by the constant battering of Cosmic rays and the solar wind.

According to Lauretta's team, the density of the surface material was between 31 to 44 pounds per square foot. A typical Earth has a density six times higher than that of a typical rock.

The second study confirmed that the numbers were correct.

The surface boulders are porous and there is a lot of void space between them, according to Kevin Walsh, the lead author of the second study. We expected that small, fine grains and dust would stick to the large boulders and fill the void space and act as a glue to provide some strength. It isn't there.

Should Bennu threaten to hit Earth, the soft nature of the rock may make it difficult for a future attempt at deflating it. A strike by Bennu would cause a domino effect. Bennu is one of the most dangerous asteroids, even though NASA estimates the chance of collision at 1 in 2,700.

Scientists think that many asteroids have a similar "rubble pile" structure, which consists of conglomerations of rock, gravel and dirt. It's almost impossible to predict how a rubble pile will respond to an impact, according to a sampling experiment.

The first experience of pressing something into the surface was provided by the touchdown. We would need to know what the surface is like so that it doesn't absorb the impact if we tried to distract it.

Cosmic rays and other forms of space weather erode the exposed space rocks, which is why the underground material appeared more red. Researchers are interested in learning more about the origins of life on Earth because of the reddish hue of the asteroid.

The scientists will have to wait until OSIRIS-REx arrives in September of 2023 to get their hands on it. The sample collected by the probe was less than the teams had hoped for but still four times more than they need to conduct the analysis.

Apophis, a high-risk asteroid, will be visited in 2029 by the OSIRIS-REx mission, which was recently extended.

The results are described in two papers that were published in July.

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