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Bern researcher solves puzzles about diamond-like asteroids

As with most celestial bodies, “Bennu” and “Ryugu” craters show that these asteroids collided with others millions of years ago. Photos of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and NASA’s Osiris Rex mission show the dents.

However, the two asteroids may not only have been affected by collisions, they may have been caused by them. This is shown by a study just published in the journal “Nature Communications”, in which Martin Jutzi from the Physics Institute and the National Research Center Planets at the University of Bern is involved.

Siblings or not?

The latest studies have shown not only that both asteroids resemble diamonds in shape, but also that they are not so much individual objects, but rather aggregates of rocks that are held together by gravity.

In addition, both asteroids appear to be of the carbon-containing asteroid type. These similarities led the researchers to believe that “Ryugu” and “Bennu” were derived from larger asteroids, perhaps even from the same object.

However, their different water content contradicted this, as the University of Bern said in a statement on Wednesday. At this point Martin Jutzi came on the scene. Thanks to 3D simulation, Jutzi had proven in the past, among other things, that the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was much younger than expected, and he was able to clarify the formation of Saturn’s moons, which look like cosmic ravioli and spaetzle.

Why aren’t the diamonds damp right away?

For the current study, he modeled collisions of a potential mother asteroid with other objects and calculated how this could affect the density of the fragments. With the help of its calculations, the team was able to show that the collision fragments can reassemble and form the diamond shape.

Jutzi and his colleagues also demonstrated that the two fragments were heated differently by collisions, which led to different levels of evaporation and explains the different levels of hydration.

Conclusions about the formation of the earth

Material samples from the two asteroid sampling missions will enable researchers to verify their results. The Jaxa mission is currently on its way back to Earth. If everything goes as planned, she will deliver her samples from «Ryugu» by the end of the year. The NASA spacecraft is expected back in just over three years with samples from “Bennu”.

The researchers hope that the samples will help them to better understand the origin, genesis and development of not only «Ryugu» and «Bennu», as Martin Jutzi says: «« By looking at these objects, we can ideally also understand them improve how the planetary building blocks came into being that ultimately shaped the earth. »

Technical article link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16433-z

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