麻豆影院

On Sept. 24, 2023, a space capsule about the size of a used tire landed in a patch of Utah desert not far from Salt Lake City. Aboard was a tiny chunk of an alien world 鈥� roughly half a pound of rocks from an asteroid called Bennu.听

This 鈥渟ample return鈥� was the culmination of one phase of a NASA mission called OSIRIS-REx. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in 2016, beginning a seven-year journey to study and even pick up a piece of Bennu 鈥� which is about as tall as the Empire State Building and shaped a bit like a spinning top.听

Researchers at CU 麻豆影院 were along for the ride. Daniel Scheeres, distinguished professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, led a team that used the spacecraft鈥檚 navigational instruments to peer deep inside the asteroid. The group鈥檚 research data is opening a new window into the dawn of the solar system billions of years ago.听听听

Among other things, the researchers 鈥� which included four graduate students 鈥� discovered that Bennu鈥檚 interior may be much less dense than its outer layers 鈥� like a cr茅me-filled chocolate egg in space.听

As for the sample of Bennu, Paul S谩nchez, senior research associate of aerospace engineering, will help analyze that treasure. He鈥檒l explore how tiny grains of rocky material can hold themselves together to form a massive space behemoth like Bennu.听

鈥淲e were hoping to find out what happened to this asteroid over time, which can give us better insight into how all of these small asteroids are changing over millions, hundreds of millions or even billions of years,鈥� Scheeres said. 鈥淥ur findings exceeded our expectations.鈥�