Tuesday’s post on asteroids and what it would take to deflect or destroy one has been usefully reinforced by a new paper from Mike Nolan (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona) and colleagues, who discuss their findings in Geophysical Research Letters. Here we’re looking at observations of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu, both archival (extending back to 1999) and current, drawing on the OSIRIS-REx mission.
You’ll recall that OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) is in operation around the asteroid, its observations helping us understand the object’s rotation, structure and composition, with a sample return planned for 2023. The Nolan paper fills us in on observed changes in rotation, which are apparent on the order of about 1 second per century. The asteroid’s rotation is speeding up.
Exactly what’s going on here is something we can hope OSIRIS-REx can help nail down. One possibility is a process like the Yarkovsky?O’Keefe?Radzievskii?Paddack effect (YORP), by which asteroids are known to be affected because of the uneven distribution of solar heating across their surfaces. The effects of YORP depend on the shape and orientation of the individual asteroid and can cause either a slowdown or uptick in the object’s spin rate.
Or are there other processes at work here? Even boulders on the surface and their relative positions can play into changes in asteroid spin. It’s important to find out because over astronomical time periods, a faster spinning asteroid could eventually shed some of its mass. One thing, then, that OSIRIS-REx will be looking for is the presence of landslides or other surface evidence of such changes. Nolan points to the possibilities:
“As it speeds up, things ought to change, and so we’re going to be looking for those things and detecting this speed up gives us some clues as to the kinds of things we should be looking for. We should be looking for evidence that something was different in the fairly recent past and it’s conceivable things may be changing as we go.”
Image: This series of MapCam images was taken over the course of about four hours and 19 minutes on Dec. 4, 2018, as OSIRIS-REx made its first pass over Bennu’s north pole. The images were captured as the spacecraft was inbound toward Bennu, shortly before its closest approach of the asteroid’s pole. As the asteroid rotates and grows larger in the field of view, the range to the center of Bennu shrinks from about 11.4 to 9.3 km (7.1 to 5.8 miles). This first pass was one of five flyovers of Bennu’s poles and equator that OSIRIS-REx conducted during its Preliminary Survey of the asteroid. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.
We’re fortunate in having data from ground-based telescopes as well as Hubble to study the object over time. 110 million kilometers from Earth, the spinning Bennu completes a full rotation every 4.3 hours. The Hubble data on rotation rate showed a slight mismatch with the predictions of the earlier observations. And while Nolan and team point out that a change in the asteroid’s shape could account for its change in rotation, they clearly favor the YORP hypothesis. Having OSIRIS-REx at Bennu offers the opportunity to put YORP ideas to a close-up test.
The increase in Bennu’s rotation over the past two decades does not fit some earlier analyses of the YORP effect, making the spacecraft’s work all the more important. As the paper notes:
The OSIRIS-REx science team will independently measure the rotational acceleration during its 2-years of proximity operations. The precise shape determination, surface boulder distribution, gravity measurements, and thermal property determinations will allow for a better connection between the dominant drivers of the YORP effect (if confirmed) and their relative importance. The OSIRIS-REx team can measure the stability of the rotation state, to confirm whether this acceleration is a steady increase due to the YORP effect, or some other (likely episodic) process such as mass movement. Thus, our observations form a critical baseline for future work.
Within two years, we should have the OSIRIS-REx data independently providing Bennu’s rotation rate, which should help to identify the cause. We’ll also be looking at Bennu with other instruments for the next several decades to see whether further changes in rotation rate, consistent with YORP or not, emerge. Usefully, work like this allows us to compare and contrast in situ measurements with ground-based observations, giving us the chance to hone our skills at asteroid analysis for application to the larger population.
The paper is Nolan et al., “Detection of Rotational Acceleration of Bennu Using HST Light Curve Observations,” Geophysical Research Letters 31 January 2019 (abstract).
I kind of wonder whether or not the rotation behind this is due to the fact that there is a constantly changing gravitational pull due to the motion of the planets. As the distance varies, the intensity of attraction changes on the object, both across the object and in terms of its net effect. Could that be the reason for this variable rate?
No I do not think planet iteration could be the explanation here, had Bennu slowed down I would have suggested a rock had been ejected and taken momentum with it in the process.
Now the rotation is getting faster, I am with the authors and agree that it would be the YORP effect as this is the simplest explanation.
planet iteration ? I’m not at all certain what that means. I was speaking of the idea that changing distances as well as differential gravitational forces could, might result in a variation in rotation rate. You might also throw in the YORP effect along with radiation pressure from the sun as additional factors. I’m no way discounting that your explanation could be correct, but why would a rock be ejected from an asteroid in a seemingly spontaneous manner?
Both Bennu and Ryugu have that interesting shape that has been suggested as the result of loose material “rolling” down the “slope” due to the interaction of forces between gravity and centripetal forces.
If such asteroids increase their rotation rate, that suggests that they should incrementally flatten, but at the same time, the greater radius should partially counteract any speedup due to conservation of angular momentum.
The paper just discusses 2 versions of the YORP effect, but make no mention of shape change other than a contraction of the radius to account for the speedup is unlikely, as ore impacts. Any movement of surface boulders is discussed from the POV of impact on YORP effects, rather than angular momentum.
WOW – OSIRIS-REx caught asteroid Bennu ejecting bursts of strange, high-speed particles.
The near-Earth asteroid has revealed surprising flurries of material ejected from its surface on some dozen occasions since OSIRIS-REx’s arrival.
“In what Lauretta called perhaps “one of the biggest surprises of my career,” there was the spectacle that greeted OSIRIS-REx after only six days in orbit. Dozens to hundreds of particles, from pebbles up to fist-sized rocks, were flying at high speeds off of Bennu’s surface. Some of these particles fall back to Bennu’s surface, some fly away into space, and some enter orbit around Bennu, like a fleet of tiny satellites. OSIRIS-REx spied 11 similar events throughout January and February. The ejections seem to happen in sudden bursts, from specific locations on Bennu’s surface, but researchers still aren’t sure what causes them.”
http://astronomy.com/-/media/Images/News%20and%20Observing/News/2019/03/BennuParticleJets.jpg?mw=1000&mh=800
http://astronomy.com/news/2019/03/osiris-rex-caught-asteroid-bennu-ejecting-bursts-of-strange-high-speed-particles
Mini Black Hole Eruptions! ;-}
Surprise! ‘Active Asteroid’ Bennu Is a Rare Particle-Ejecting Space Rock
By Mike Wall 5 hours ago Science & Astronomy
Only a dozen of these cosmic oddballs are currently known.
https://www.space.com/asteroid-bennu-active-osiris-rex-discovery.html
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NcAdBZHwFF4jDArUZAs33K-650-80.jpg
That is amazing, but how do they know what Bennu is doing is rare for planetoids? We have only visited a few up close so far, and even fewer for more than a quick flyby.
I also want to know what they are doing to avoid having OSIRIS-REx become a statistic? They scanned for orbiting debris before the probe arrived, right? How did they miss these items?
Something to definitely consider for all future planetoid missions.
Could Bennu be a – mostly – dead comet? I say this because the article linked above says the particle ejection activity increases when the space rock is nearer to Sol in its orbit.
More on this tomorrow, but the OSIRIS-REx team has run a safety assessment that sees no risk to the spacecraft from these particles.
Interesting results from Ryugu’s surface.
The Hayabusa2 Mission to Asteroid Ryugu Just Dropped Its First Scientific Results.
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–e5S3LCl_–/c_scale,dpr_2.0,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/x7z5l2tm9fknozofvlq3.png
https://gizmodo.com/the-hayabusa2-mission-to-asteroid-ryugu-just-dropped-it-1833405613