NASA Finally Unlocks Canister of Dust From 4.6 Billion-Year-Old Asteroid (theguardian.com) 47
NASA announced Friday that it finally got a canister of asteroid dust open, four months after it parachuted down through the Earth's atmosphere into the Utah desert. The Guardian reports: The space administration announced Friday that it had successfully removed two stuck fasteners that had prevented some of the samples collected in 2020 from the 4.6bn-year-old asteroid Bennu, which is classified as a "potentially hazardous" because it has one in 1,750 chance of crashing into Earth by 2300. Most of the rock samples collected by Nasa's Osiris-Rex mission were retrieved soon after the canister landed in September, but additional material remaining inside a sampler head that proved difficult to access.
After months of wrestling with the last two of 35 fasteners, scientists in Houston managed to get them dislodged. "It's open! It's open!" Nasa's planetary science division posted on Twitter/X. The division also posted a photograph of dust and small rocks inside the canister. According to the Los Angeles Times, the team designed custom tools made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel to pry it open -- all without the samples being contaminated by Earthly air. Nasa said it will now analyze the nine-ounce sample.
After months of wrestling with the last two of 35 fasteners, scientists in Houston managed to get them dislodged. "It's open! It's open!" Nasa's planetary science division posted on Twitter/X. The division also posted a photograph of dust and small rocks inside the canister. According to the Los Angeles Times, the team designed custom tools made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel to pry it open -- all without the samples being contaminated by Earthly air. Nasa said it will now analyze the nine-ounce sample.
The Guardian on Slashdot time? (Score:4, Informative)
This was announced nearly 2 weeks ago. We even covered it on Slashdot https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]. The guardian article even covers the same source story from the 11th Jan https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-... [nasa.gov]
So Slashdot dupe (nothing new there), but did Slashdot editors get a job at The Guardian now too?
Re: The Guardian on Slashdot time? (Score:3)
The old article said that there were still a few additional disassembly steps required to do once the stuck bolts were cut. Perhaps this article is about actually opening the capsule?
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(From The Grauniad)
Most of the rock samples collected by Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission were retrieved soon after the canister landed in September, but additional material remaining inside a sampler head that proved difficult to access.
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The old article said that there were still a few additional disassembly steps
Both articles reference the same source blog from the 11th Jan. There's no new story here.
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Don't be a dupe whiner.
Name checks out, I guess.
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Name checks out, I guess.
What? My last name? Last time someone compared it to the word garbage I think I was in 9th grade. Is that your level of cleverness? That's a bit of a self own if so.
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Well, I was actually referring to stuff people put on themselves to make themselves standout in a crowd. But since you brought it up, I guess you are correct, too. Also, since you are whining again, I assume that was correct and maybe you should grab the mirror and concentrate on that.
Transcript (Score:5, Funny)
"It's open, it's open! OMG it's full of `~ & ,^ [NO CARRIER]
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Did I hear someone saying... (Score:3)
I can really relate (Score:4, Funny)
I had a bagless vacuum cleaner once that was just about impossible to open...
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Re: Is this as fake as the moon landing? (Score:2)
Oh, shut up.
Re: Is this as fake as the moon landing? (Score:1)
If that violence means that I am allowed to glue mouth of ignorant people like you shut then I'm all up for it.
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Remember how quick Very Serious Geologists were to welcome Piltdown Man as true?
Unlikely, since none of us are 120+ years old.
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Do you remember when you first heard about it, though?
Piltdown Man was "found" in 1912 and debunked as a hoax in 1953.
Nobody here is old enough to remember either event.
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Tomorrow's News (Score:2)
Half of the planet already dead due to an unknown disease. The other half expected to perish by tomorrow. The cockroaches are still doing fine.
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Next week: car tires worldwide are mysteriously crumbling into dust.
Andromeda Strain?
Like finally detaching your iRobot cleaner (Score:2)
from the damn wall mount.
This must have felt good for NASA engineers.
It doesn't matter what you're disassembling (Score:2)
It's always the last screw that fights you like the fist of an angry god.
Two screws? Their fault for increasing their odds.
So ... custom tools? (Score:2)
The team has never been to Lowe's or Home Depot -- or, even Harbor Freight?
Re:So ... custom tools? (Score:5, Informative)
That Harbor Freight tool would have left metal shavings among the sample, contaminating it.
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One could have made a custom tool from a very specific well-known material that has been analyzed and documented exceptionally well beforehand. With that, it'd be possible to exclude this specific material from the analysis and by weighing it very precisely before and after use, we would even know exactly how many micro or nanograms of the tool material should be there.
And I guess they did just that, but probably not to a spec that's strong enough or large enough to produce the forces needed to open the dam
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Chineseum. The chips and splinters will evaporate within minutes.
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show me a tool from harbor freight that's made of actual steel (I kid of course that place is my favorite shop)
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Since China produces most of the world's steel - and mass produced steel is cheaper than any other material - it will be steel.
We don't know the quality of that alloy, though. "Steel" can be a large number of slightly different materials.
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That Harbor Freight tool would have left metal shavings among the sample, contaminating it.
Blast it with WD40 first.
Headline 3 weeks from now: "Asteroid sample is loaded with organic compounds!!"
left out of the news report (Score:2)
Link to HiRez. (Score:5, Informative)
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Here is the full resolution image. https://images-assets.nasa.gov... [nasa.gov]
I love that picture. Here's an object that visited another body in space and came back, and it's just sitting there looking like a disc head in great grandpa's garage, covered in debris and waiting to be worked on. These types of "science meets mechanic" moments really add something to space exploration for me. Thanks for the link.
Looks so much like Andromeda canister (Score:2)
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Possibility of Bringing New Form to Earth (Score:2)
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Asteroid dust settles to Earth all the time. (I wanted to say constantly, but the rate varies.)
There is essentially no chance that this will contain a "lifeform" (are viruses alive) that can spread on Earth which hasn't already done so.
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Obviously, there would be an accidental release from a laboratory, again.
We don't live in that universe. I believe you've mistaken late-night sci-fi tinged horror with reality.
It'd be exciting enough if they found organic compounds in the debris. That would be some tantalizing breadcrumbs.
The real question (Score:2)
Ounces? (Score:1)
Is the USA not embarrassed to be in the same imperial club as Liberia and Myanmar?
Anyway, fantastic achievement by the engineers and scientists.