A final overhaul for the asteroid Bennu and five other top space and science stories this week

A final overhaul for the asteroid Bennu and five other top space and science stories this week

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Welcome to Wonder Theory, your weekly space and science version.

In a few days, robots will have reached milestones in our solar system as scientists here on earth uncovered windows in the early days of mankind. This contrasting progress amazes us here at the CNN Space and Science Team, especially since it happens so often.

To learn how our ancestors created cave art and engraved prehistoric stone maps, these early humans changed from unreliable figures to family members with common ground.

Similarly, the robotic researchers we send to planets and asteroids, those rocky time capsules of the past 4.5 billion years, expose the past of the solar system. These insights not only give more information about where we came from, but also what happened before humans walked the earth.

Here are some of this week’s amazing explorations and discoveries.

Across the universe

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been in a dance dance with the near-asteroid Bennu since its arrival in December 2018 – but the meeting and greeting will soon come to an end. The spacecraft completed a final flight of the asteroid on Wednesday, which comes about 3 km from Bennu’s surface.
This artist's concept shows the flight path of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during the final flight of the asteroid Bennu.

The spacecraft is now drifting away from its two-and-a-half-year companion and leaving for Earth on May 10.

Bennu and OSIRIS-REx had a close encounter on October 20, 2020 when the spacecraft briefly touched and retracted the surface of the asteroid. This allowed the sampling arm of the spacecraft to collect 2 ounces of Bennu’s material that will return to Earth in September 2023. The sample may shed more light on the formation of the solar system and how elements such as water may have been delivered to the early earth impact of asteroids.

The images captured by OSIRIS-REx on its last run will reveal the aftermath of the sample collection event in October, which was a mess. Expect to see the images and how much Bennu’s surface has been changed by the encounter next week.

Long ago…

Ancient cave painters may have sacrificed their ability to breathe to make history artworks.

New research on the analysis of cave paintings from 14,000 to 40,000 years ago in Spain and France has shown that many of these works of art can be found in deep, narrow corridors of cave systems.

The upper Paleolithic artists would have needed artificial light to see while working. Fire would have reduced the available oxygen, causing hypoxia – which releases dopamine and causes hallucinations, according to the study.

According to the researchers, it was a conscious decision that helped the artists connect with the world around them and their beliefs – including the cosmos and the underworld.

The wonder

Another week, another selfie on Mars – but this is even more historic. The Perseverance rover took a selfie with the newly independent Ingenuity helicopter, which sits in the middle of a Mars airfield, preparing for the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 meters from the rover.
Until April 3, the helicopter was attached to the robber’s abdomen before leaving the earth. Since the helicopter crashed gently on the surface, it marks milestones off its list, including the freezing nights on Mars that survive and the blades wrap.
The helicopter will have its first flight on Sunday, and the mission control team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will share details from this important trial on Monday at 11 a.m. ET. If you’re an early bird and want to see the first black-and-white images returned by helicopter, call NASA’s mission control at JPL Monday morning from 4:15 ET.
And then we will know how the first Wright brothers took place on another planet. I hope Ingenuity lives up to its name and has a successful first outing.

Curiosities

According to new research, a stone map from the Bronze Age is the oldest representation of an area in Europe.

The Saint-Bélec plate, a partially broken piece of stone covered with engraving, was first discovered in 1900 before being forgotten in a museum for about a century.

A recent analysis revealed that the woodcut actually represents 3D images of a valley and rivers similar to the landscape of Western Brittany in France, which ’emphasizes the cartographic knowledge of prehistoric societies’, said Clément Nicolas , a postdoctoral researcher from Bournemouth University and first author of the study said. .

The plate was originally obtained from a burial mound in the same region that it represents, and was probably reused in ancient burials to seal human remains. Although the map has not yet traveled the world, it has served several, intriguing purposes.

Climate has changed

The arrival of white and pink cherry blossoms, or ‘sakura’, is often a celebrated sign that spring has arrived in Japan, but the early flowering of this year worries scientists.

Cherry blossoms are usually associated with April. The flowering trees bloomed early and peaked in Tokyo on March 22, recording the second earliest flowering date. They bloomed in Kyoto on March 26 – the earliest flowering in the central city in more than 1,200 years.

A bird is seen on March 23 next to cherry blossoms in a park in Tokyo. The cherry trees started their annual flowering almost two weeks ahead of schedule.

Warming temperatures around the world are causing the frost and the sudden arrival of spring to end early, causing the flowers to open earlier, the researchers said. Cherry blossoms in Washington, DC, followed a similar pattern.

It can cause a ripple effect in ecosystems where plants and insects rely on each other for timing and environmental directions and have done so for thousands of years, including valuable crops.

This early flowering is just the tip of the iceberg of a global phenomenon that could destabilize natural systems and countries’ economies, said Amos Tai, associate professor of Earth Systems Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Power of nature

Get ready for another wild hurricane season.

Colorado State University on Thursday shared its forecast for an overactive season, which includes 17 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes (category 3 or higher). A typical hurricane system usually has 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Although the forecast of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration is only available in May, scientists agree that the Atlantic Ocean will host a busy hurricane season due to the warm ocean surface temperatures and the lack of calming effects of El Niño, which shifts the vertical wind. increases that prevent hurricanes from forming.

If you live in an area that may be affected by hurricanes, you should now prepare to have an evacuation plan and an updated evacuation package before the season starts on June 1st.
Like what you read? Oh, but there’s more. Check back next Saturday here for the next issue of Miracle Theory, brought by CNN Space and Science author Ashley Strickland, who find wonder in planets outside our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.

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