New insights about surface, structure of asteroid Bennu: OSIRIS-REx data indicates surface, near-subsurface rubble is loosely bound
When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected samples from asteroid Bennu’s surface in 2020, forces measured during the interaction provided scientists with a direct test of the poorly understood near-subsurface physical properties of rubble-pile asteroids. Now, a Southwest Research Institute-led study has characterized the layer just below the asteroid’s surface as composed of weakly bound rock fragments […]
Discovered: 150-year-old platypus and echidna specimens that proved some mammals lay eggs
Jars of tiny platypus and echidna specimens, collected in the late 1800s by the scientist William Caldwell, have been discovered in the stores of Cambridge’s University Museum of Zoology. At the time of their collection, these specimens were key to proving that some mammals lay eggs — a fact that changed the course of scientific […]