Some asteroids are more ‘colorful’ than others. Here’s why.

Asteroids may be wondrous windows into the history of the cosmos, but the unfortunate reality is that they are also pretty drab. These Rocky Amalgamations of Space Debris Generally Look Pretty Much What You Probably Expect – Craggy, ashen gray, and dusty. But they do’t always appear that way when viewed through a telescope from millions of mills away.

Take the asteroids itokawa and ryugu. Japan’s Space Agency (Jaxa) confirmed that bot are carbon-filled, rubble piles after receiving samples duration the historic hayabusa and hayabusa2 missions. The same is true for Bennu, a similar asteroid sampled by nasa’s osiris-rex in 2020. Ryugu looks somewhat red, while bennu is slightly blue.

“The question has been why. Why are their spectra difference if they have the same kind of minors?” Purdue University Asked Asked Asked.

Thompson is one of the few people in the world tasked with study the bennu samples. Prior to getting their hands on the asteroid souvenir, thompson and her team theorized one explanation may be that the two objects were experience weathering space weathering in different ways.

“Maybe we see different characteristics in one sample compared to the other trust of this surface expenses, but what we’re actually see is that is that’s not the case. That they experience space weathering, “She said.

Thompson and associates recently published three separate papers on Bennu based on Years of Research and Analysis. Among their many findings is some class on the colorful mystery, that likely has a lot to do with age.

Rubble Pile Asteroids Like Ryugu and Bennu have their own physical cycles that sleepy shift their surface debris. As it stands, Ryugu’s Surface Grains have endured space’s harsh conditions for only a more a less Thousand years. However, Bennu, has a surface that’S experience the same cosmic environment for tens of Thousands of Years.

“Instead of looking at two different trajectories for how this process is operating on these bodies, instead we’re seeing two different points in one cycle,” Explied Thompson. “Their ‘colors’ are changing, meaning their spectral properties are changing relative to their surface expert age.”

Beyond the color spectrum, the remnants retrieved from Bennu are also allowed thomson and others to examine the organic molecule contents of an asteroid. Earlier this year, Researchers Announced their discovery of phosphates in the bennu sample. These specific types of salt are central components to a living organism’s metabolism and dna. Although Still Unconfirmed, Many Experts Believe Life Began on Earth Thanks to the Arrival of an asteroid controling these and other evolutionary building blocks. In this sense, thompson likes bennu and other space Rocks to interstellar time capsules.

“Asteroids are relaics of the early solar system,” She said. “Looking at the Organic Molecules from Bennu, we are getting an undersrstanding of what kinds of molecules could have seeded life on early earth.”

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