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China has launched an ambitious mission to study two interesting objects in our solar system.
The Tianwen-2 mission launched the long March 3B rocket from the Xichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan province at 1:31pm on Wednesday (1:31am on Thursday in China), according to the National Space Agency of China.
Like Tianwen-1, it was lifted in July 2020 with two purposes: delivering Orbiter and Rover to Mars. Tianwen-2 has two goals.
The initial goal of the mission is to fly around and collect the country’s first samples from the asteroid. Space Rock called Camooarewa Or, Asteroid 2016 HO3 could be a chunk of chunks from the moon that has become “quasi-satellites” near our planet. The spacecraft will fly to asteroids for a year, and another year will assess potential landing sites in orbit.
After dropping these samples of Earth through capsules at about 2½ A few years from now, the mission takes seven years to reach an unusual object called the main belt comet 311p/pan-starrs and perform a flyby. Sometimes called active asteroids, celestial objects orbit between Mars and Jupiter, producing dusty comet-like tails.
Bot Camooarewa and 311p / Panstars It is a very interesting target derived from a group of objects that astronomers knew they barely existed until a few years ago, said Dr. Teddy Carreta, a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science. At the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
“Now we can study them close by with details that really revolutionize the understanding of them and objects like them,” Kareta said in an email. “And more, every time you see a new kind of solar system object on a spaceship for the first time… it’s like opening a present for your birthday. Whatever it’s under the wrapping paper, it’s always exciting to see something for the first time and try your best to understand it.”
Astronomers first discovered the Camooarewa in 2016 using the Hawaiian Panoramic Survey Telescope, or the Pan Star, Pan Stars. Ben Sharkey, a visiting senior faculty expert at the University of Maryland College Park, led a study published in November 2021, suggesting that it could be a massive boulder that was emitted from the moon due to impacts.
The name Kamooarewa comes from Hawaiian creations that suggest descendants traveling by themselves.
It will be the smallest asteroid visited between 150 and 190 feet (46-58 meters) in diameter, said Dr. Patrick Michel, director of the research facilities at the French National Centre for Science and Technology. Michelle also served as a coin vegetator for missions for NASA and Japan’s aerospace exploration agency Osiris Rex and Hayabusa 2, returning asteroid samples to Earth. Asteroid sampled by Osiris Rex, Bennu had a diameter similar to the height of the Imperial State building, that is, 1,614 feet (492 meters).
Camooarewa is a semi-satellite, a type of nearby asteroid that orbits the Sun but sticks close to Earth, and comes within about 9 million miles (14.5 million kilometers).
“Ben Sharkey didn’t think there was a lump of the moon in space near the Earth until we saw it reflecting light like the moon,” Kareta said. “The moon is covered with craters, but who knew that the violent formation of these craters could throw tennis court-sized rocks?
Kamooarewa’s research and sampling could help astronomers determine whether the space rock actually originated from the moon, or whether it similarly reflects light, Kareta said. Kareta is also involved in a study led by Sharkey, and will be studying Kamoooalewa in more detail next year using James Webb Space Telescope.
“If it’s actually from the moon, we might be able to identify other moon samples with similar properties, which will help us know where it came from on the moon,” Kareta said. “It looks like the moon, but if it’s actually coming from somewhere else, the sample promotes a fundamentally informed search of where the Camooarewa actually came from.”
Missions can also shed light on asteroids that can cause damage if they hit the Earth. The camooarewa is comparable in size to the objects that destroyed tungskas in Siberia more than a century ago, Michel said.
approximately According to the Planetary Society, the 98-foot-wide asteroid (30 meters wide) struck the Podkamennaya Tungska River in Russia’s remote Siberian forest in 1908. The event levelled trees and destroyed forests at 830 square miles (2,150 square kilometers).
According to Michelle, trajectories and landings on such small bodies are complex and part of what makes the mission interesting and dangerous.
“To get into orbit you have to get really close. Even if you follow it, the operation remains very sensitive. “And the plan is to get a sample. So there isn’t much area where the probe can safely land.”
Space Rock 311p/Pan-Starrs is one of the most studied active asteroids, Kareta said.
“Even just (25) years ago, we didn’t know there were any active asteroids. Scientists thought that only icy comets from the outer solar system could produce comet-like tails, but we also found that dozens of asteroids don’t have many ice,” Kareta said.
Astronomers have come up with many hypotheses about why objects throw dust, including the idea that the presence of pressure pockets that drain material and that other objects can affect 311p/pan-starrs and release elements, Michelle said.
Flying an active asteroid can accurately show the process of creating dusty tails streaming from objects, potentially revealing the possibility that even scientists have not considered it.
“This is the first time such an object has been observed up close and we can determine which mechanism (there may be other mechanisms) drives the activity,” Michelle said.
Data collected by Tianwen-2 could enhance extensive research into objects within the internal solar system, including mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt, Kareta said.
“There’s an incredible amount that I don’t know about either object,” Kareta said. “I don’t think the spacecraft has never reached the target and at least some major surprises were found. I am sure some of the current understanding of either object is completely wrong.
