Evidence for widespread hydrated minerals on asteroid (101955) Bennu
Name
nihms-1533461.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
609.74 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3ce691a81855d582e567eb87bc2f430d
Date Issued
March 2019
Journal
Nature astronomy
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Hamilton, V.E., et al., "Evidence for widespread hydrated minerals on asteroid (101955) Bennu." Nature astronomy 3, 4 (2019): p. 332-340 doi 10.1038/s41550-019-0722-2 ©2019 Author(s)
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Early spectral data from the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission reveal evidence for abundant hydrated minerals on the surface of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in the form of a near-infrared absorption near 2.7 µm and thermal infrared spectral features that are most similar to those of aqueously altered CM-type carbonaceous chondrites. We observe these spectral features across the surface of Bennu, and there is no evidence of substantial rotational variability at the spatial scales of tens to hundreds of metres observed to date. In the visible and near-infrared (0.4 to 2.4 µm) Bennu’s spectrum appears featureless and with a blue (negative) slope, confirming previous ground-based observations. Bennu may represent a class of objects that could have brought volatiles and organic chemistry to Earth. ©2019
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0722-2
