Back on September 24, 2023, on this day, many planetary scientists looked up at the sky, waiting for a "wanderer" who had been out for 7 years and flew 6.4 billion kilometers to carry out a mission. dish
Not long after, a saucer-shaped object passed through the atmosphere with flames at a very fast speed, and at an altitude of 10 kilometers above the ground, the landing fan was opened, and the saucer-shaped object landed smoothly at the Utah test training ground in the United States.
The saucer-shaped object is the Pluto asteroid probe return capsule that collects samples from the asteroid Bennu and returns to Earth. Although the re-entry capsule was burned black when it passed through the atmosphere, it was completely shaped, and it could be said that it was a perfect landing.
In the return capsule, lying quietly from the asteroid Bennu, these samples are the reason why planetologists are looking forward to them, because these original samples will help scientists understand the formation and evolution of the early solar system and solve some of the mysteries in the solar system.
However, when the sample chamber was brought to the laboratory, an awkward scene occurred: the sample chamber could not be opened at all. So why can't the sample module open? Maybe it has something to do with the asteroid Bennu.
Why the asteroid Bennu?
The asteroid Bennu is a class B asteroid, its reach is not large, only 500 meters, this type of asteroid has a characteristic, that is, it is primitive enough. In the 4.5 billion years since the formation of the solar system, the form of the asteroid Bennu has hardly changed, and it contains a lot of information about the early solar system.
And in 2018, scientists found that the asteroid Bennu contained traces of water through a probe, proving that its rocks had been in contact with water, and the source of water in the early solar system was also a point of interest to scientists.
In the observation, it was also found that the asteroid Bennu is rich in carbon, and the organisms on the earth, including human beings, are mainly carbon-based life, so whether the asteroid contains organic matter related to life on the earth, or amino acids and other basic substances of life, will have an important enlightening role in the origin of life on the earth.
Because before the asteroid Bennu, Japan discovered more than 20 kinds of amino acids from the Ryugu asteroid, and if organic substances such as amino acids are found from Bennu, it means that this basic material of life is widely present in the solar system, which may be a major discovery that changes the theory of the origin of life on earth.
In addition to the above research value, the asteroid Bennu will likely hit the Earth in the future, since its discovery in 1999, scientists have made precise calculations on its orbit, and found that in 2175-2196 Bennu will have a 1/2700 probability of hitting the Earth.
The asteroid Bennu is tiny in size compared to a cosmic object, but if it were to hit the Earth, with a diameter of 500 meters, it would be devastating.
Therefore, this Pluto probe also has an important mission, that is, to observe the asteroid Bennu up close, one day in the future, it will really hit the earth, what kind of means will people take to target it, so as to know themselves and the enemy.
There was an accident during the collection process
The Pluto asteroid probe was launched in September 2016, successfully reached Bennu's orbit in December 2018, and after nearly two years of observation, it successfully landed on Bennu in October 2020.
Although it only lasted a few seconds, the Pluto probe made several actions, first spewing nitrogen gas to stir up the rocks and dust on the asteroid's surface, and then extending a mechanical arm more than 3 meters long to sweep the dust and pebbles into the collector.
Since Bennu is not a single rock, but a loose mass of stones, this led to a misjudgment in the collection process of the Pluto, and the collection force was too large, and some of the rock samples were stuck on the edge of the device cover, which may have laid the hidden danger for the sample cabin to be opened in the future.
After collecting the sample, Pluto placed the collected sample into the return capsule at the bottom of the probe, and after confirming that the collector was securely locked, the sample return capsule was sealed until it was opened upon return to Earth.
After returning to Earth, in order to avoid contamination of the sample by Earth, the sample chamber is transferred to an experimental chamber, which is filled with inert gases to ensure the safety and stability of the sample, and the staff then removes the sample through gloves.
In order to ensure that there was an accident during the return of the sample to Earth, there were a total of 35 fasteners in the collector, and during the disassembly process, two of them failed, which means that two of the firmware were stuck.
Scientists look at the samples that make them greedy, but they can't take them out, just like a greedy child who can't open the lid of a can, so he can only be anxious.
If it's a can, it's okay to say, you can pry it open, but it's really not okay to drill a hole. But the sample chamber cannot be operated in this way, because in doing so, then the environment on the earth will undoubtedly pollute the purity of the sample, and the sample that cost 800 million US dollars and took seven years to retrieve will be scrapped.
It wasn't until January of this year that scientists came up with a way to design a tool, and after months of waiting, the sample chamber was opened and the sample they had been waiting for was finally obtained.
Of the samples brought back, 25% will be extracted to various laboratories in the United States for research, about 4% will be sent to Canada, 0.5% will be sent to Japan, and the remaining 70% will be mothballed, hoping that when the scientific instruments are more sophisticated in the future, they can come up with more discoveries.
Eh, has the United States forgotten one thing: the favor borrowed from the Queqiao No. 1 last year has not been returned, is it not giving a sample of 100 or so grams of Benu to repay the favor?