The asteroid Vesta, measuring five to 14 feet, scattered NASA in the southern hemisphere of the Penn and near its center.
The rocks were found in the images from OSIRIS-Rex and appear much brighter than the surrounding area of dark, rich carbon.
The team examined the particles using an on-board spectrometer and detected signs of a compound-mineral pyrox known in Vesta.
NASA believes the object came from Penn’s parent asteroid, which was partially attacked by Vesta.
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The asteroid Vesta, measuring five to 14 feet, scattered NASA in the southern hemisphere of the Penn and near its center. Rocks found in the images from OSIRIS-Rex and appear much brighter than the surrounding dark, rich carbon
Hannah Kapilon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Green Belt, Maryland, said: ‘Our leading hypothesis is that Pennu received this object from its parent asteroid after it hit a Vestoid (a piece from Vesta) parent.’
‘Later, when the parent asteroid wreaked havoc, part of its debris piled up in the pen under its own gravitational pull, including some pyroxene from Vesta.’
NASA launched the OSIRIS-Rex (Origin, Spectrum Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security Recolith Explorer) in 2018 for the asteroid Pennu.
In the spring of 2019, the device broke images showing odd pieces trapped in a ‘rubble pile’ called Pennu.
The team examined the particles using an on-board spectrometer and detected signs of a compound-mineral pyrox known in Vesta. NASA believes the object came from the parent asteroid of Pennu, which was partially attacked by Vesta.
Daniel Della Gustina of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Duson said: ‘We saw six boulders measuring 5 to 14 feet (about 1.5 to 4.3 meters) in the southern hemisphere of the Penn and near the equator.’
NASA notes that these fragments appear to be much brighter than the rocks in Penn, some almost ten times brighter than their surroundings.
Upon further investigation into the compounds of the odd structures, traces of the mineral pyroxene found in Vesta were found in them.
This mineral is usually formed when rock structures melt at high temperatures, and NASA was able to reject the idea of rocks coming from Pennu because Pennu is made of water-resistant minerals.
Previous observation determined that this was not uncommon.
The new results help Pennu and other asteroids retreat from the complex journey they have detected through the solar system. Based on its orbit, several studies indicate that Pennu was delivered from the interior of the main asteroid belt.
The Dawn spacecraft, which observed Vesta, found a dark object in the crater walls, a black rock found by the Hayabusa spacecraft in Idokawa, and the object of S-type asteroids observed by Hayabusa 2 in Rio.
All of these findings are shared by NASA in a statement that ‘asteroids participate in a complex orbital dance that sometimes results in cosmic mashups’.
As asteroids pass through the solar system, their orbits can change in a number of ways, including gravitational pull from planets and other objects, meteorite impacts, and even the slightest pressure from sunlight.
The new results help Pennu and other asteroids retreat from the complex journey they have detected through the solar system.
In terms of its orbit, several studies indicate that it was delivered from the interior of the main asteroid belt via a well-known gravitational path that could carry objects from the inner main belt to orbits closer to Earth.
NASA introduced OSIRIS-Rex (Origin, Spectroscopy, Resource Identification, and Security Recolith Explorer) for the asteroid Pennu in 2018.
Scientists have identified two inner main belt asteroid families, Bolana and Eulalia dark and carbon-like.
Eulalia is the parent of a family that formed 900 to 1,500 million years ago, and Bolana formed 2,000 million years ago – the trouble may be Penn’s parents’ candidate.
Dante Loretta, chief researcher at OSIRIRS-Rex at the University of Arizona, said: ‘Future studies of asteroid families, as well as the origin of Pennu, the presence of material such as Vesta, and the apparent scarcity of other asteroid types should be corrected. . ‘
‘We look forward to the return model, which contains fragments of these intriguing rocks.’
This restriction is even more compelling if an S-type object is found on the asteroid Ryu.
‘This difference shows the value of studying multiple asteroids throughout the solar system.’