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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @07:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @07:24PM (#773018)

    There's no way to interpret the AC's remarks as presenting a dichotomy.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:05AM (#773286)

    Wow, dude. Loosen up. You live in a world of total absolutes.

    You should try some of that legal weed if it's available where you're at. You could benefit.

    I also recommend a spirit journey. I didn't really understand who or what I was, other than book knowledge, until I went on one.