The US space agency NASA, in a new revelation, said that 101955 Bennu, an asteroid that was discovered way back in 1999, consists of a surface that can be compared with a play area for kids. This area consists of loosely packed particles which make up the asteroid’s exterior part.
Posting a new blog, the agency said, “It turns out that the particles making up Bennu’s exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that if a person were to step onto Bennu they would feel very little resistance, as if stepping into a pit of plastic balls that are popular play areas for kids.”
The latest finding came two years after the agency’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from the asteroid in October 2020. However, it is only now that scientists have found that an Asteroid’s exterior is not as tightly packed as believed earlier.
According to OSIRIS-REx science team member Kevin Walsh, if the asteroid was packed it would have implied solid rocks, but researchers found a lot of void in the surface. Earlier in December 2018, NASA was shocked to find that the surface was filled with boulders, instead of what they believed to be a beach-like surface. They were more shocked after studying the force that keeps particles together on the surface.
As per Patrick Michel, an OSIRIS-REx scientist, research is still on to find out about these bodies as they behave in very different ways. In its post, NASA further said that in case an asteroid ever comes in contact with earth, asteroid particles will break apart due to the planet’s atmosphere. The agency said that these asteroids are clinging together due to the gravity or electrostatic force. NASA suggests that in the case of a collision, such asteroids may face a different kind of threat compared to solid asteroids.