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A28 SCIENCE
Monday 10 deceMber 2018

NASA spacecraft arrives at ancient asteroid, its 1st visitor

By MARCIA DUNN The low frequencies are a
AP Aerospace Writer result of Mars’ thin air den-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. sity and even more so the
(AP) — NASA’s new Mars seismometer itself — it’s
lander has captured the meant to detect under-
first sounds of the “really un- ground seismic waves, well
worldly” Martian wind. below the threshold of hu-
The Jet Propulsion Labora- man hearing. The seismom-
tory released audio clips of eter will be moved to the
the alien wind Friday. The Martian surface in the com-
low-frequency rumblings ing weeks; until then, the
were collected by the In- team plans to record more
Sight lander during its first wind noise.
week of operations at Mars. The 1976 Viking landers on
The wind is estimated to be Mars picked up spacecraft
blowing 10 mph to 15 mph shaking caused by wind,
(16 kph to 24 kph). These but it would be a stretch to
are the first sounds from consider it sound, said In-
Mars that are detectible by Sight’s lead scientist, Bruce
human ears, according to Banerdt, of JPL in Pasade-
the researchers. na, California. InSight land-
“Reminds me of sitting out- ed on Mars on Nov. 26.
side on a windy summer This Friday, Dec. 7, 2018 photo made available by NASA shows a view from the arm-mounted “We’re all still on a high
afternoon ... In some sense, camera on the InSight Mars lander. The spacecraft arrived on the planet on Nov. 26. from the landing last week
this is what it would sound Associated Press ... and here we are less
like if you were sitting on to it. way of thinking about how spacecraft. The sounds than two weeks after land-
the InSight lander on Mars,” Thomas Pike of Imperial far away we are getting were recorded by an air ing, and we’ve already
Cornell University’s Don College London said the these signals.” pressure sensor inside the got some amazing new
Banfield told reporters. rumbling is “rather different The noise is of the wind lander that’s part of a science,” said NASA’s Lori
Scientists involved in the to anything that we’ve ex- blowing against InSight’s weather station, as well as Glaze, acting director of
project agree the sound perienced on Earth, and I solar panels and the result- the seismometer on the planetary science. “It’s
has an otherworldly quality think it just gives us another ing vibration of the entire deck of the spacecraft. cool, it’s fun.”q

New NASA lander captures

1st sounds of Martian wind

By MARCIA DUNN anxious to start exploring!” the beginning of our solar
AP Aerospace Writer tweeted lead scientist system 4.5 billion years ago.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Dante Lauretta of the Uni- As such, it’s an astronomi-
— After a two-year chase, versity of Arizona. “To Ben- cal time capsule.
a NASA spacecraft arrived nu and back!” A Japanese spacecraft,
Monday at the ancient as- With Bennu some 76 million meanwhile, has been
teroid Bennu, its first visitor in miles (122 million kilometers) hanging out at another
billions of years. away, it took seven minutes near-Earth asteroid since
The robotic explorer Osiris- for word to get from the June, also for samples. It is
Rex pulled within 12 miles spacecraft to flight con- Japan’s second asteroid
(19 kilometers) of the dia- trollers at Lockheed Martin mission. This latest rock is
mond-shaped space rock. in Littleton, Colorado. The named Ryugu and about
It will get even closer in the company built the space- double the size of Bennu.
days ahead and go into or- craft there. Osiris-Rex aims to collect at
bit around Bennu on Dec. Bennu is estimated to be least 60 grams, or 2 ounc-
31. No spacecraft has ever just over 1,600 feet (500 es, of dust and gravel. The
This Nov. 16, 2018, image provide by NASA shows the asteroid orbited such a small cos- meters) across. Research- spacecraft won’t land, but
Bennu. After a two-year chase, a NASA spacecraft has arrived mic body. ers will provide a more pre- rather use a 10-foot (3-me-
at the ancient asteroid Bennu, its first visitor in billions of years. It is the first U.S. attempt to cise description at a scien- ter) mechanical arm in
Associated Press gather asteroid samples for tific meeting next Monday 2020 to momentarily touch
return to Earth, something in Washington. down and vacuum up par-
only Japan has accom- About the size of an SUV, ticles. The sample contain-
plished so far. the spacecraft will shad- er would break loose and
Flight controllers applaud- ow the asteroid for a year, head toward Earth in 2021.
ed and exchanged high- before scooping up some The collection — parachut-
fives once confirmation gravel for return to Earth in ing down to Utah — would
came through that Osiris- 2023. represent the biggest cos-
Rex made it to Bennu — ex- Scientists are eager to mic haul since the Apollo
actly one week after NASA study material from a car- astronauts hand-delivered
landed a spacecraft on bon-rich asteroid like dark moon rocks to Earth in
Mars. Bennu, which could hold the late 1960s and early
“Relieved, proud, and evidence dating back to 1970s.q