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Related: About this forumNASA's first look: Tiny asteroid is studded with boulders
NASAs first look at a tiny asteroid shows the space rock is more moist and studded with boulders than originally thought.
Scientists on Monday released the first morsels of data collected since their spacecraft Osiris-Rex hooked up last week with the asteroid Bennu, which is only about three blocks wide and weighs about 80 million tons (73 million metric tons). Bennu regularly crosses Earths orbit and will come perilously close in about 150 years.
Theres no liquid water on the asteroid, but theres plenty of it in the form of wet clay. Project scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona said the blueish space rock is a little more rugged of an environment than we expected with hundreds of 33-foot (10 meter) boulders, instead of just one or two.
Scientists think Bennu is a leftover from the beginning of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago when planets tried to form and some failed. Lauretta said it looks like Bennu was once a chunk of a bigger asteroid that probably had water in it.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2018/12/10/nasas-first-look-tiny-asteroid-is-studded-with-boulders/
gtar100
(4,192 posts)A previous planet from a time before this solar system even existed? Are there clues within that would reveal some of its past?
Nitram
(22,794 posts)some continuing to get larger, and others bumping into each other and returning to dust. As clumps gained mass, they gre bigger more ropidly because more mass means more gravitational attraction of dust and small clumps.
gtar100
(4,192 posts)That picture looks very much like sedimentary rock. Wouldn't the smaller rocks contained in the larger mass require some geological process in order to form and get worn down to to their present shape? This cloud "dust" must have been composed of something that was broken up if that's the case. Granted my very limited knowledge is based on what I see on Earth. Thank you for your reply.
Nitram
(22,794 posts)Early on there must have been many collisions between the many coalescing bodies, breaking them apart. Smaller rocks wouild be attracted by larger bodies.