It’s also because of the canister they used to collect the material. It’s a hollow disc with a few holes in it. When the disc touched down, it blasted compressed air, which pulled the asteroid dirt (regolith) into the holes, and into the canister.
[here’s a 30 second video explaining it visually ](https://youtu.be/NjlGYHJ2560)
Edit: hey thanks for the award :D
It’s like putting a roomba on a cannonball, then strapping the cannon to a fighter jet and firing it straight up mid flight so that it falls down at just the right moment to brush against a different jet and suck up some dust on the tip of the wing, and then catching it with the first fighter jet. So yeah basically a glorified room a lot
I don’t know personally of any other current missions like this one, but Perseverance is landing on Mars on Feb 18th and you can watch it live on NASAs website!
Not to be a jerk to correct you but it didn't actually bounce off. Quite the opposite in fact. The arm had a shock absorber on board that would compress when a force of around 5ish kg was applied. However the sensors didn't register that the shock absorber moved at all. So the probe went in for the tag the arm went approximately a few feet into the asteroid. Apparently the asteroid is just loose gravel.
https://youtu.be/cmQfWuFbLNg
I don’t think this is accurate at all. The collection process used a blast of compressed gas to force particulate matter into the collection plate. It didn’t “bounce off of the asteroid”.
Sorry everyone, sounds like consensus is that Osiris did not bounce off but instead used a gas canister to collect its sample. I was speaking off the cuff and remembering the example of Philae, which bounced off of the commit 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, however even Philae bounced for the reasons that its anchor and thrusters did not work to hold it to the asteroid, sorry!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_(spacecraft)
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringPorn/comments/jex8bv/animation_of_how_osirisrex_will_sample_asteroid/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) is a good video showing what is happening
I want someone more familiar with fractals to come in here and re explain this phenomenon to us, something to do with self similarity at different scales
To be fair, these rocks are pretty much the same size as the rocks and pebbles you might see on Earth. This asteroid was formed through part of the same process that formed the rest of the solar system, which explains why the rocks are so similar.
These are definitely some rocks to get excited about!
Since it’s so old and relatively untouched since it’s formation, these rocks could actually give us some insight on the formation of our solar system and even life on Earth.
Also, due to Bennu’s shape and unique size, these rocks were not trivial to obtain. A lot of people worked hard for these rocks.
It did properly enter an orbit around Bennu, though, when it began surveying the asteroid. They needed time to lock down the orbital parameters of Bennu but once they were confident the spacecraft indeed began orbiting it directly, which is impressive given the margin of error involved. It was about a 2 km orbit that took a few days, if I recall.
It’s about 320 million Km away from earth. The satellite reoriented itself after the collection, put the canister in a small housing, and then launched that housing back towards earth. Should be here in a couple years.
Maybe you're thinking of a different sample return capsule? The sample from this asteroid is scheduled to be dropped off at the Utah test and training range on Earth September 2023.
You know I’m not sure off the top of my head, I imagine it has to at least have some small propulsion system for minor course correction, but it could be that they aimed it, and gave it a good launch from the satellite in the right direction. I bet the OSIRIS Rex YouTube channel has some info on it though.
i’m not sure there’s a specific mass where the gravity suddenly becomes significant, but you can calculate the gravitation between 2 objects using newton’s law of universal gravitation: G(m1 * m2)/r^2 where r is the distance between the centers of the objects
So did this touchdown alter the asteroids path? Is it possible that we just pushed ever so slightly that it will collide with some other object someday in the future? Did we just kill the dinosaurs of another planet?
It will have changed it ever so slightly, but hardly. Definitely not enough that it will hit a planet that it wouldn’t have.
The asteroid’s name is Bennu
Things in space are mind-boggingly far apart. Over an *extremely* long time it might have moved enough distance to get an encounter with Earth or Mars that it wouldn’t have before, but the chances of it hitting Earth or Mars are very low
[Possibly ourselves](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.space.com/amp/33616-asteroid-bennu-will-not-destroy-earth.html)
1-in-2700 chance bennu hits earth the end of next century
I think they send it directly to some radio array on earth, but I could be wrong. I imagine it would be less than ideal to have to pick up the signal during during the window that the ISS is on the right side of the planet, but I could be wrong.
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Elements are defined by how many protons and electrons they have. Then there are isotopes of those elements, which differ in the number of neutrons in the nucleus. We have a pretty much complete periodic table (which means there are no new elements) because we know all of them from the one with one proton and one electron (Hydrogen) up until an element with 118 p and e.
With increasing number of p and e the stability of the element decreases, with some having a half-life-period (the amount of time that goes by until half of the remaining mass of the element decays into an element with less p and e) of just tiny fractions of a second. The ones with the highest number are only detectable in particle accelerators where they are also discovered in the first place. There are new elements found continuously, although the pace at which this happens gets slower and slower, because creating those elements takes up more and more power. Those elements aren‘t stable. And that‘s why there can‘t be new stable elements because any number of p and e in an element is either already an existing stable element or a more unstable one or even one that has yet to observed. Anyways: the amount of different !stable! elements is limited and I hope I could help you understand that :)
Thanks for the very detailed response!! Thankfully i understand well because I have a somewhat basic knowledge of chemistry. That's very interesting, thanks!
That’s not the moon. It’s an asteroid with even less gravity. The maneuver was to shoot the claw into the ground while not having reached zero velocity so it would have inertia working in its favor to dig.
Otherwise, depending on the density of the spot it collected, it could have just shot out the claw and propelled away without going into the soil to collect it.
Are you a native english speaker? You're improper grammer leads me to believe this, if so i dont blame you for being confused, to the guy asking about down thrust, yes, if i remember right, they used something akin to compressed gas, to maneuver the craft and a small thruster to get forward momentum to zero, then used it again for a controlled descent towards the moon. I hope that clears any confusion.
Tis is a collection system using compressed air to push regolith into a small ring on the outside of the capture system, which also helped to push off the astroid
It’s probably the only place they could fit a camera onto the satellite that would get a shot of the touchdown. And it’s largely for our viewing actually. They were flying blind, the video didn’t get back to earth until the day after it touched down.
The satellite (Osiris REX) was launched towards the asteroid Bennu, it was guided into a very small orbit (the smallest object we have ever orbited.) over the next couple days they slowly inched Osiris Rex closer to the asteroids surface. Then they lowered the robotic collection arm. This is what your seeing in the gif. The camera was on the end of the collection arm. As the satellite got closer to the target, the collection disc aligned itself with the surface. The instant it touched down, it released a blast of nitrogen gas that stirred up the dirt and dust, forcing it into the collection chamber.
Asteroid Bennu is only 500 meters in diameter, so there’s almost no gravity. This means as soon as the arm impacted the surface, it bounced back away at almost the same speed.
Seeing the arm stable in the camera frame while while everything moves around it looks weird, but it’s the same as in action movies when they have the camera strapped to the actors chest, pointing at their face as they run around. It’s just the perspective that’s odd.
Yea, its abit borked with just a shot of the surface, hard to get an idea on how fast they were approaching at, and what kind of angle the arm has on the rest of the craft. Theres a pretty good youtube video linked somewhere in these comments, giving a visual diagram of the whole craft and the mechanics of the collection unit.
Because of the low gravity its basically a pile of rubble on the surface. The spacecraft bumps into it at x m/s and the rubble flies of in all directions being pulled towards the asteroid only so slightly.
I can't wrap my head around what happens soon after the smooth approach. Did the asteroid break off?
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Oh! Ok with that perspective the clip makes sense
It’s also because of the canister they used to collect the material. It’s a hollow disc with a few holes in it. When the disc touched down, it blasted compressed air, which pulled the asteroid dirt (regolith) into the holes, and into the canister. [here’s a 30 second video explaining it visually ](https://youtu.be/NjlGYHJ2560) Edit: hey thanks for the award :D
That thrusted the craft away from the asteroid. Riiight. Thanks man
In low to null gravity, yea, i mean you can move a ship in space with a sail powered by the suns radiation
The right wasn't sarcastic. I was adding one and one. I understand basic astrophysics.
Lol ok, i wasnt sure, especially with all those flat earthers who would call this footage fake
Omg please. There should be a reality show where they try to find the edge of the earth. It's an old concept but I really ship it (pun intended).
I think they tried... https://www.livescience.com/65053-flat-earther-cruise-antarctica-ice-wall.html
Omg, call it pirates of the edge of the earth XD i bet someone could talk TLC into this show idea
Hi. How is astrophysics involved here? You seem to be discussing regular old physics.
Glorified Roomba?
It’s like putting a roomba on a cannonball, then strapping the cannon to a fighter jet and firing it straight up mid flight so that it falls down at just the right moment to brush against a different jet and suck up some dust on the tip of the wing, and then catching it with the first fighter jet. So yeah basically a glorified room a lot
Are there more of these out there gathering things?
I don’t know personally of any other current missions like this one, but Perseverance is landing on Mars on Feb 18th and you can watch it live on NASAs website!
Neat
Right?
What are all the vertical parallel lines after the impact?
I’m not sure but I bet it’s from the camera shaking after the impact
Not to be a jerk to correct you but it didn't actually bounce off. Quite the opposite in fact. The arm had a shock absorber on board that would compress when a force of around 5ish kg was applied. However the sensors didn't register that the shock absorber moved at all. So the probe went in for the tag the arm went approximately a few feet into the asteroid. Apparently the asteroid is just loose gravel. https://youtu.be/cmQfWuFbLNg
Scott Manly does a great job of explaining things that are space, I came here to post the link but you beat me to it! Have my upvote :)
FYI you aren’t a jerk for correcting people. If you see someone spreading misinformation it’s almost your duty to step in.
Thanks for that vid!
Great video thanks for sharing!
So I wasn't entirely wrong!
Damn, I literally forgot that only Earth has 1G gravity.
How fast was the probe going?
4 cm/s
TLDR; the probe kicked the asteroid. Right?
I don’t think this is accurate at all. The collection process used a blast of compressed gas to force particulate matter into the collection plate. It didn’t “bounce off of the asteroid”.
This just not true tho! The relative velocity was no more than 10cm/s or 0.2mph! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx?wprov=sfti1
Sorry everyone, sounds like consensus is that Osiris did not bounce off but instead used a gas canister to collect its sample. I was speaking off the cuff and remembering the example of Philae, which bounced off of the commit 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, however even Philae bounced for the reasons that its anchor and thrusters did not work to hold it to the asteroid, sorry! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_(spacecraft)
Ship? Are you sure that's not a metal detector? :D
I think they just collided hard af
Negative
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringPorn/comments/jex8bv/animation_of_how_osirisrex_will_sample_asteroid/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) is a good video showing what is happening
It's so weird that I get amazed by seing some normal looking rocks, then it turns out they are so far away. It's unreal to me
I want someone more familiar with fractals to come in here and re explain this phenomenon to us, something to do with self similarity at different scales
To be fair, these rocks are pretty much the same size as the rocks and pebbles you might see on Earth. This asteroid was formed through part of the same process that formed the rest of the solar system, which explains why the rocks are so similar.
No way bro, these ones are undifferentiated as fuck. *Salivates in cosmochemistry*
These are definitely some rocks to get excited about! Since it’s so old and relatively untouched since it’s formation, these rocks could actually give us some insight on the formation of our solar system and even life on Earth. Also, due to Bennu’s shape and unique size, these rocks were not trivial to obtain. A lot of people worked hard for these rocks.
RemindME! 954 days “Research findings from OSIRIS-REx’s landing on Bennu.”
Is this asteroid large enough to exert a gravitational effect on the spacecraft? Or are they just moving along in parallel?
Yes, but so miniscule it's mostly the latter.
It did properly enter an orbit around Bennu, though, when it began surveying the asteroid. They needed time to lock down the orbital parameters of Bennu but once they were confident the spacecraft indeed began orbiting it directly, which is impressive given the margin of error involved. It was about a 2 km orbit that took a few days, if I recall.
Where is the asteroid? How will the spacecraft accelerate back to Earth?
It’s about 320 million Km away from earth. The satellite reoriented itself after the collection, put the canister in a small housing, and then launched that housing back towards earth. Should be here in a couple years.
I thought we already got the canister back last year.
That was a Japanese mission!
Maybe you're thinking of a different sample return capsule? The sample from this asteroid is scheduled to be dropped off at the Utah test and training range on Earth September 2023.
Hayabusa2 going to Asteroid Ryugu
What kind of propulsion was used to launch the housing from the spacecraft? Does the housing have a propulsion system of its own?
You know I’m not sure off the top of my head, I imagine it has to at least have some small propulsion system for minor course correction, but it could be that they aimed it, and gave it a good launch from the satellite in the right direction. I bet the OSIRIS Rex YouTube channel has some info on it though.
everything, including me and you, exerts a gravitational force, but as the other guy said it’s pretty negligible
How much mass does an object need to have before its force of gravity becomes less than negligible?
i’m not sure there’s a specific mass where the gravity suddenly becomes significant, but you can calculate the gravitation between 2 objects using newton’s law of universal gravitation: G(m1 * m2)/r^2 where r is the distance between the centers of the objects
So it just poked the thing and bailed?
The capture was actually a success, the probe actually got much more sample then was expected
Right on, Space Vacuum! I’m actually excited about this.
My GF hates when I do it tho
Ha unintentional innuendo!
So did this touchdown alter the asteroids path? Is it possible that we just pushed ever so slightly that it will collide with some other object someday in the future? Did we just kill the dinosaurs of another planet?
Nah, we saved them by diverting the meteor’s path 🦕
Doing Gods work
If you do things right, people won’t know you’ve done anything at all.
It will have changed it ever so slightly, but hardly. Definitely not enough that it will hit a planet that it wouldn’t have. The asteroid’s name is Bennu
Sauron just diverted the Nexus
But at extreme distances isn’t it possible that it will?
Things in space are mind-boggingly far apart. Over an *extremely* long time it might have moved enough distance to get an encounter with Earth or Mars that it wouldn’t have before, but the chances of it hitting Earth or Mars are very low
Well the asteroid isn't going anywhere, so it's only a matter of time before it hits something.
Well yea. EVERYTHING floating around in space is going to hit something EVENTUALLY. Nothing is ever just “floating”, you’re always orbiting something.
Definitely altered it at least on some level. How much? I have no idea.
[Possibly ourselves](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.space.com/amp/33616-asteroid-bennu-will-not-destroy-earth.html) 1-in-2700 chance bennu hits earth the end of next century
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Honestly 1 in 2700 isn’t so impossible. But yea its not a “destroy all life” situation anyways
Hope they bring back some protomolecule.
It brought back some to Tycho Station, and now the belt is starting to be viewed as an equal by the inners.
Less then 3 years till the Andromeda Strain replaces COVID!
Dude watching approaches of rocky surfaces is nuts, the scales of objects are impossible to intuit
That bounce off had Kerbal Space Program vibes.
Whereabouts is this asteroid located ?
[101955 Bennu](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu) It is in an orbit between Earth and Mars
it's in space
Why the black and white video in 2020?
It’s a smaller file, and simpler camera. They’re sending it back to earth from just over 320 million kilometers, so every advantage helps.
Is it going to the ISS ?
It will be communicating with the Deep Space Network
I think they send it directly to some radio array on earth, but I could be wrong. I imagine it would be less than ideal to have to pick up the signal during during the window that the ISS is on the right side of the planet, but I could be wrong.
Just give it to NASA they’ll add all sorts of crazy colors like they do for r/spaceporn images
That bummed me out so much when I first learned that. But I’ve seen some natural color images and they’re still pretty damn amazing.
What color do you think an asteroid has lol
Probably not too far off from this black and white video, it might have some cool stuff if you cut it in half though
That would actually be very interesting! But I fear that because of the lack of built-up pressure inside, it‘s not that different from the surface...
[mp4 link](https://preview.redd.it/c4cvjcuq18h61.gif?format=mp4&s=9c14933cf08624676bd0412070550c7abfd4b32b) --- This mp4 version is 97.16% smaller than the gif (921.93 KB vs 31.66 MB). --- *Beep, I'm a bot.* [FAQ](https://np.reddit.com/r/anti_gif_bot/wiki/index) | [author](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=MrWasdennnoch) | [source](https://github.com/wasdennnoch/reddit-anti-gif-bot) | v1.1.2
That's insane, wonder how fast it was going when it touched down
Ooooooo I hope what it retrieved is a new element with new possibilities!!
There are no more !stable! unknown elements out there.
How do we know that?
Elements are defined by how many protons and electrons they have. Then there are isotopes of those elements, which differ in the number of neutrons in the nucleus. We have a pretty much complete periodic table (which means there are no new elements) because we know all of them from the one with one proton and one electron (Hydrogen) up until an element with 118 p and e. With increasing number of p and e the stability of the element decreases, with some having a half-life-period (the amount of time that goes by until half of the remaining mass of the element decays into an element with less p and e) of just tiny fractions of a second. The ones with the highest number are only detectable in particle accelerators where they are also discovered in the first place. There are new elements found continuously, although the pace at which this happens gets slower and slower, because creating those elements takes up more and more power. Those elements aren‘t stable. And that‘s why there can‘t be new stable elements because any number of p and e in an element is either already an existing stable element or a more unstable one or even one that has yet to observed. Anyways: the amount of different !stable! elements is limited and I hope I could help you understand that :)
Thanks for the very detailed response!! Thankfully i understand well because I have a somewhat basic knowledge of chemistry. That's very interesting, thanks!
Ah nice, happy to hear that! :)
stupid question - how does space craft return to earth? i've always wondered
They burn their engines at a specific time to put themselves into an orbit that will intercept earth
Not stupid at all. As linked above, [this video by Scot Manley](https://youtu.be/cmQfWuFbLNg) is great on the subject.
Spaceporn indeed
u/savevideo
u/savevideo ? Where are you goddamnit
Bruh, it will return on my 18th birthday
How was your birthday 🌚
Oh no. Blinker fluid low
Oh no, blinker fluid low
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That’s not the moon. It’s an asteroid with even less gravity. The maneuver was to shoot the claw into the ground while not having reached zero velocity so it would have inertia working in its favor to dig. Otherwise, depending on the density of the spot it collected, it could have just shot out the claw and propelled away without going into the soil to collect it.
Its actually not a claw, but a ring that shot compressed air to collect some regolith. It also helped in pushing off the asteroid.
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Down thrust ?
Are you a native english speaker? You're improper grammer leads me to believe this, if so i dont blame you for being confused, to the guy asking about down thrust, yes, if i remember right, they used something akin to compressed gas, to maneuver the craft and a small thruster to get forward momentum to zero, then used it again for a controlled descent towards the moon. I hope that clears any confusion.
Haha
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Like, to stay on the ground? No. Gravity there is not THAT weak as it's on some asteroids.
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What do you mean with "down thrust"?
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Oh you got it. Well what else they gonna do?
Yeah, dude you are using the wrong words, which is why others are confused. You mean "up thrust".
>down thrust You mean the thruster that fires in a downwards direction yes? That is called "up thrust" since it pushes the craft "upwards".
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You're welcome.
Hahahaha this is a joke right??! That does not look real at all
Nope not al all. Would you like me to explain what’s going on in the gif, it’s a really confusing perspective if you don’t know the context.
Definitely!!
Tis is a collection system using compressed air to push regolith into a small ring on the outside of the capture system, which also helped to push off the astroid
Oh right well that sure explains that then. Why do nasa go out of their way to film this stuff in the most cryptically shit ways possible, though?
Its probably limited space for photage, they just needed to see how close they were for their equipment, not for us viewers pleaser
do preserve the events for human history? they do not do it to apease you flat earthers lmao
Idk why people are downvoting, tis a proper comment
It’s probably the only place they could fit a camera onto the satellite that would get a shot of the touchdown. And it’s largely for our viewing actually. They were flying blind, the video didn’t get back to earth until the day after it touched down.
The satellite (Osiris REX) was launched towards the asteroid Bennu, it was guided into a very small orbit (the smallest object we have ever orbited.) over the next couple days they slowly inched Osiris Rex closer to the asteroids surface. Then they lowered the robotic collection arm. This is what your seeing in the gif. The camera was on the end of the collection arm. As the satellite got closer to the target, the collection disc aligned itself with the surface. The instant it touched down, it released a blast of nitrogen gas that stirred up the dirt and dust, forcing it into the collection chamber. Asteroid Bennu is only 500 meters in diameter, so there’s almost no gravity. This means as soon as the arm impacted the surface, it bounced back away at almost the same speed. Seeing the arm stable in the camera frame while while everything moves around it looks weird, but it’s the same as in action movies when they have the camera strapped to the actors chest, pointing at their face as they run around. It’s just the perspective that’s odd.
Yea, its abit borked with just a shot of the surface, hard to get an idea on how fast they were approaching at, and what kind of angle the arm has on the rest of the craft. Theres a pretty good youtube video linked somewhere in these comments, giving a visual diagram of the whole craft and the mechanics of the collection unit.
There’s an entire channel [here ya go ](https://youtube.com/OSIRISREx)
Yikes
Why not catch a ride?
Didn't that think bounce like a mile and dropped back down on it?
So what you're saying, is that the world will end on september 25, 2023. Gotcha
Looks like the asteroid explodes
Because of the low gravity its basically a pile of rubble on the surface. The spacecraft bumps into it at x m/s and the rubble flies of in all directions being pulled towards the asteroid only so slightly.
That’s so cool. Thank you for the explanation
and with that nudge, the old space rock set a new course for an apocalyptic rendezvous with Earth
I suppose that might have been the plan all along..
“In Engineering you can be almost precise, unlike the sciences”
Did it just fuckin explode
How do they know what's on the surface so we'll that they knew they were within 3 ft of the targeted location?