Live Coverage of OSIRES-REx Spacecraft Arrival at Asteroid Bennu

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: charlyv

Think bigger!

Protogalaxy, lots of water (and/or hydroxides) it was flying through. Picking it up along the way like all biggish objects (where earth probably got its water from)...

One of the newer theories now of where Earth got its water say much of it may be native to Earth and came with Earth as Earth formed. Water-rich minerals in the mantel of the Earth may have held a lot o water and supplied our oceans.

Asteroids bringing water to an already-formed Earth and may have still played a part, but not as big of a part as once thought.

Where Did Water Come From

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: charlyv

Think bigger!

Protogalaxy, lots of water (and/or hydroxides) it was flying through. Picking it up along the way like all biggish objects (where earth probably got its water from) It doesn’t become part of a major solar body and when we have enough collective brain power to get to space we confirm our suspicions.

I mean the thing was targeted after all! lol... (ETA: Bennu was selected for a reason)

This asteroid is an asteroid belt kickout. The belt contains a very convincing record of a destroyed planet.
We have many samples.

a reply to: charlyv

At 2:43 p.m. EST on December 31, while many on Earth prepared to welcome the New Year, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 70 million miles (110 million kilometers) away, carried out a single, eight-second burn of its thrusters – and broke a space exploration record. The spacecraft entered into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, and made Bennu the smallest object ever to be orbited by a spacecraft.

“The team continued our long string of successes by executing the orbit-insertion maneuver perfectly,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “With the navigation campaign coming to an end, we are looking forward to the scientific mapping and sample site selection phase of the mission.”

asteroidmission.org (OSIRIS-REx website) - NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu, Breaking Record.

It is in orbit!! (Has been... a little late on the news). Crazy to think it only about a mile above its surface! Or that they will survey the whole entire thing!

Shame we will have to wait until 2023 to get the sample back!

a reply to: charlyv

Destroyed? Or just didn't form?

I've heard both. We're not ever going to know, until we get off our dead asses, and go see for ourselves.

Robot probes are great for laying the ground work for future exploration, and exploitation...but they lack that fundamental ability to look at something, and make an intuitive leap that open another avenue of exploration.