Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Jul 8, 2019 13:53:07 GMT 2
(.#234).- An inedited impact experiment will be conducted on an asteroid.
An unprecedented impact experiment will be conducted tonight on an asteroid.
By Tristan Vey - Updated 04/04/2019 at 16:15
On the left the SCI impactor dropped by the Hayabusa-2 probe. At right the autonomous camera that will film the event while the probe will be safe behind the asteroid. JAXA
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 will attempt a spectacular experiment in the night, launching a 2-kg projectile at the speed of a rifle bullet at the Ryugu asteroid to study the artificial crater it will form.
For once, this is not an asteroid that will hit the Earth, but indeed the humanity that will hit an asteroid. And it's a big first. The goal is not to destroy Ryugu, a black pebble like coal 900 meters wide located 300 million kilometers from us, but to study the way it is "cratered".
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 will launch a 2 kg copper projectile at the speed of 7000 km / h, the speed of a rifle bullet, to the surface and look at the size and shape of the crater that will be produced. . Test videos made on Earth show the violence of the shot (attention, the sound is powerful):
VIDÉO YOUTUBE :
Duration: 13 seconds.
Simulation of the impact as it could be observed by the autonomous camera that will be deployed by Hayabusa-2. Saiki and. al (2017)
The test should be conducted between 3 am and 4 am French time. The probe will not fire the projectile directly. Not only to avoid the effect of recoil, very pronounced in a vacuum, but especially to avoid debris that will be ejected at high speed by the impact. On the contrary, it will drop the impactor with its explosive charge, then hide behind the asteroid. She has 40 minutes for that. It will also drop a small autonomous camera one kilometer from the site of the detonation to be able to film the blast and the impact live.
The probe will have to wait two weeks for the debris to fall, because of the low gravity that reigns in this environment, before returning to its initial position, then to have a closer look at the crater formed by the shot. Scientists expect a radius of ten meters, but without much conviction. In fact, they do not really know what is the cohesion or hardness of an asteroid. We only know that gravity is low, which makes it much more fragile than the Moon or the Earth, and that its density is extremely low (close to that of water: it could almost float on the ocean).
Scientists are therefore waiting with great excitement for the result of this unprecedented experiment. They will also be able to see what the underground material spared by "space erosion" looks like - caused by the incessant bombardment of high-energy cosmic rays and particles of the solar wind that alter the surface of airless bodies. It is also possible that the Hayabusa-2 probe is attempting to collect samples within the crater, if the situation is favorable (for example, the surface must not be too rough).
The machine had already managed a first collection of grains at the end of February in a relatively flat area. A video broadcast early March shows how delicate the operation was. The thrusters of the probe create a cloud of small debris flying like ash in a draft.
F I N .
An unprecedented impact experiment will be conducted tonight on an asteroid.
By Tristan Vey - Updated 04/04/2019 at 16:15
On the left the SCI impactor dropped by the Hayabusa-2 probe. At right the autonomous camera that will film the event while the probe will be safe behind the asteroid. JAXA
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 will attempt a spectacular experiment in the night, launching a 2-kg projectile at the speed of a rifle bullet at the Ryugu asteroid to study the artificial crater it will form.
For once, this is not an asteroid that will hit the Earth, but indeed the humanity that will hit an asteroid. And it's a big first. The goal is not to destroy Ryugu, a black pebble like coal 900 meters wide located 300 million kilometers from us, but to study the way it is "cratered".
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 will launch a 2 kg copper projectile at the speed of 7000 km / h, the speed of a rifle bullet, to the surface and look at the size and shape of the crater that will be produced. . Test videos made on Earth show the violence of the shot (attention, the sound is powerful):
VIDÉO YOUTUBE :
Duration: 13 seconds.
Simulation of the impact as it could be observed by the autonomous camera that will be deployed by Hayabusa-2. Saiki and. al (2017)
The test should be conducted between 3 am and 4 am French time. The probe will not fire the projectile directly. Not only to avoid the effect of recoil, very pronounced in a vacuum, but especially to avoid debris that will be ejected at high speed by the impact. On the contrary, it will drop the impactor with its explosive charge, then hide behind the asteroid. She has 40 minutes for that. It will also drop a small autonomous camera one kilometer from the site of the detonation to be able to film the blast and the impact live.
The probe will have to wait two weeks for the debris to fall, because of the low gravity that reigns in this environment, before returning to its initial position, then to have a closer look at the crater formed by the shot. Scientists expect a radius of ten meters, but without much conviction. In fact, they do not really know what is the cohesion or hardness of an asteroid. We only know that gravity is low, which makes it much more fragile than the Moon or the Earth, and that its density is extremely low (close to that of water: it could almost float on the ocean).
Scientists are therefore waiting with great excitement for the result of this unprecedented experiment. They will also be able to see what the underground material spared by "space erosion" looks like - caused by the incessant bombardment of high-energy cosmic rays and particles of the solar wind that alter the surface of airless bodies. It is also possible that the Hayabusa-2 probe is attempting to collect samples within the crater, if the situation is favorable (for example, the surface must not be too rough).
The machine had already managed a first collection of grains at the end of February in a relatively flat area. A video broadcast early March shows how delicate the operation was. The thrusters of the probe create a cloud of small debris flying like ash in a draft.
F I N .
