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posted by martyb on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the water+solar+electrolysis=rocket-fuel-and-oxidizer dept.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which "arrived" at the asteroid Bennu on December 3 but has been slowly approaching it for weeks, has found evidence of Bennu's interaction with liquid water in the past:

In a conference today, scientists announced that OSIRIS-REx has found evidence of hydrated minerals on the surface of Bennu using its on-board spectrometers - tools used to determine the exact chemical composition of a specific spot.

That means "evidence of liquid water" in Bennu's past, according to Amy Simon, the scientist overseeing OSIRIS-REx's spectral analysis.

"To get hydrated minerals in the first place, to get clays, you have to have water interacting with regular minerals," says Simon. "This is a great surprise."

And they're abundant, too. There's "strong convincing, evidence that the surface is dominated by these hydrated minerals," according to Dante Lauretta, leader of OSIRIS-REx's sample return mission, leading the team to believe Bennu is "water rich".


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:30PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:30PM (#772980)

    Water is the third most common molecule in the universe; it's shouldn't be surprising to anyone that we're finding it basically everywhere.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:40PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:40PM (#772988)

    The expert said "This is a great surprise". What don't you get about that?

    • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:26PM (2 children)

      by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:26PM (#773095) Journal

      "This is a great surprise" was in reference to LIQUID water. Yes, there's plenty of water in space. There's plenty of ice everywhere, cause oxygen and hydrogen are among the most abundant elements in the universe. But you can't make a CLAY out of ice. That is actually a rather slow process and one that isn't expected on little teeny balls of junk clumped together in the far reaches of the solar system.

      But yeah, you just go on running your mouth, shaking your ignorance stick and generally polluting the comments.

      *sips coffee*

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:48PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:48PM (#773111)

        Your parent is explaining exactly that point to his parent comment.

        • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:10PM

          by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:10PM (#773130) Journal

          And that's why most mornings.... I don't post before I've had a coffee and taken a moment to compose myself for the day. I need to keep doing that I think.