Why NASA Punched an Asteroid

↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓
Where did life come from? It’s one of the biggest questions humans have ever asked - and the answer might be locked in ancient space rocks that were around before life began. To find out, NASA pulled off one of its most ambitious missions ever, landing on an asteroid and sending a rock sample back to Earth. Today, we’re going to take a look at what it brought back.
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References:
www.asminternational.org/earl...
arxiv.org/abs/2308.11794
www.lpl.arizona.edu/news/spot...
www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
science.nasa.gov/wp-content/u...
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[@Doc_Fartens]

"Space rocks are awesome." You might even say that space...Rocks.

[@Andy_Babb]

Well played, sir. Well played. 😂

[@custos3249]

Very wry. One could say, wryan.

[@gngs0419]

Badum tssssssssss

[@ericcarabetta1161]

As someone who’s completely math illiterate, it just blows me away how these people are able to calculate and time the trajectories for things millions of miles away. Might as well be magic.

[@lifesbutastumble]

Pretty sure these things will be done using computers these days lol

[@darkphantom_01]

U r not alone

[@miriamrosemary9110]

@@lifesbutastumble Computers are like magic and they were made by people using math - so still a fitting statement!

[@lifesbutastumble]

Of course the statement is fitting, but it's also worded in a way that the OP seems to think that people are literally doing the maths in their head lol. @@miriamrosemary9110

[@shawnthompson8016]

It’s always such a treat getting to hear an expert talk about something they’re passionate about and have dedicated their lives to understanding. I could listen to Tim talk about space rocks for hours!

[@daugarten]

Seems like you’d be a huge fan of the Ologies podcast 😉

[@lexburns9036]

Alien space rock shaped like Texas? Must’ve entered the galaxy through the transfer portal🤘🏾😂

[@besmart]

OSIRIS-REx was *all gas no brakes* 🤘

[@raphmaster23]

Yee yee! ​@@besmart

[@NotSoMuchFrankly]

_Alien space rock shaped like Texas?_ Yes, otherwise known as...Texas.

[@smugfei6682]

it looks more like Burundi to me, but I can see the resemblance to Texas as well.

[@Andy_Babb]

I thought I was the only one that noticed!

[@hannayoung9657]

My friend named an asteroid after me, sadly I collided and got stuck into another asteroid. It was part of her schooling to follow one.

[@Andy_Babb]

That’s so cool. I kinda think it’s even cooler that yours got stuck into another one. Maybe they’ll form a planet one day!

[@fios4528]

I love how at 5:07 he pauses and says "does live" instead of "will live" implying there is some wiggle room for future life forms

[@Corpsman01]

Holding that rock must have been awesome. A rock older than Earth itself! Amazing!

[@Andy_Babb]

A rock older than earth, but shaped like Texas lol

[@SomethingAbtScience]

Hi smart people!

[@GabAguy]

Wait 2 minutes ago? I'm lucky

[@iambiggus]

[@Alec_Reaper]

Sorry I'm stupid

[@sebastianchevalier1738]

I'm smart on Tuesdays

[@ryangraf2542]

Not me

[@angelogodwinuy80]

If you're an avid fan of the channel I just want to say "It's okay to be Smart".

[@SilverSlayer]

🎉🎉🎉 I legit think I was your 5 millionth subscriber.. AS SOON as I clicked subscribe it turned to 5 million! Not exaggerating it was the same second! That felt really cool haha to prove.. it’s 1:47 EST on Jan. 27th you can probably verify it was me from social blade stats right now 😎

[@Proxtor]

I would name the astroid "Granola", cause its a mix of everything and looks like it

[@xpndblhero5170]

Now I want to go take a bite of it.... 😂

[@fep_ptcp883]

I thought you would talk about the Dart mission, Joe. Smacking a punch into an asteroid to calculate how much we can deflect them if needed...

[@marcoflumino]

That is alright Punching! not smacking!

[@iambiggus]

I wonder if they found that meteorite in Texas?

[@Rich79]

May be idk

[@daniel_77.]

universal coincidence lol

[@ArchFundy]

That's a red state. They would deny its existence or want to deport it.

[@professorx3060]

Everything can look like Texas if you look long enough at it 😅

[@mariofix]

I was waiting for these videos, thank you!!!

[@icinnalatte]

excellent, some progress on the main storyline! Incredible :3

[@NewMessage]

Crowdsourced asteroid names? We're due for a 'Rocky McRockface', I guess.

[@miroslavcibula6867]

I vote for that!

[@roguedogx]

0:13 that's just insane. -it's crazy how old it is -it's crazy that it's on earth -it's crazy that you are holding it (all in a good way of course)

[@Torok.Agoston]

Congratulations on 5 million subscribers very soon! :)

[@caro748]

Just subscribed thanks to your comment :)

[@chaal_upaa]

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen. Tim McCoy’s enthusiasm is infectious. Thanks for this video!

[@KarmaCadet]

amazing content! thank you for this!

[@gilles466]

Amazing stuff as always! I'm interested in what the research on the ingredients for life brings us

[@windmill9998]

fun how u guys uploaded this today right after i went down a many-hour-long Wikipedia-and-more "rabbit hole" of space stuff and geology xD)) love this stuff, please keep it up :)))

[@tomdunn3914]

I really enjoyed hearing about Benu and the jets.

[@ChrisPattisonCosmo]

I am very jealous you got to see these! Great video

[@HuzaifaAnsari1080]

Holding something older than earth on earth 😮..That is awesome..

[@aMEWzed]

Great video! Thanks.

[@muhammedtahasancar486]

love your content

[@PorchPotatoMike]

Osiris-Rex sure seems like a backronym.

[@AwareOCE]

This guy is incredible, Id love to have a conversation with him about his study and how he came to the idea to go hunt asteroid fragments for himself. Awesome video!

[@AppNasty]

Come on 5 million subs! Been following since there was a few 100k.

[@nicksamek12]

Also, I love Tim's pointer-wand!

[@jacksrandomadventures2769]

im glad he doesnt forget to mention the narwhals

[@ibrahimswiss8714]

Great video thank you

[@ocelot219]

Univers feedback mechanism, from rock to "conscious" life, nice one

[@kismet8010]

I wish I could love anything as much as Tim loves rocks.

[@BioniclesaurKing4t2]

I've been wondering about the progress of this mission since the PBS special on its "landing" aired. And in regards to "could a planet like ours exist in another solar system?", I'm inclined to believe that planets like ours probably only exist here because of Jupiter's early hungry antics, so it's Jupiters we should be looking for, otherwise we'll only find giant super-Earths.

[@avenged7peep958]

It's absolutely incredible what humans are able to do

[@Pottery4Life]

Thank you.

[@edgeeffect]

It'd be so cool to work for "The NASA Office of Contrived Acronyms" ;)

[@ragesh29]

Better known as NOCA… 😅😅

[@SolaceEasy]

I live near Tucson Arizona and have multiple people working on this mission. The name comes from the group organizing the mission most typically. It's not from NASA, typically.

[@colinleat8309]

I'm glad they finally got the lid off!

[@mixiekins]

My man McCoy rockin that wizard wand 🤘

[@skatalyst00]

When he mentions that the sample gathered contains all the elements we find on earth, it's wild to think that, after billions of years of evolution, life on earth has been able to mine, refine and develop those elements into advanced machines that can get that sample, just so that we can essentially go back to the beginning in order to understand what put it all in motion in the first place. It's a little zen, no? And it strongly confirms what I think is the most powerful, and even the most spiritual, statement about human existence, from the late great Carl Sagan: We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. (As the kids say today, mic drop!!)

[@markwentz8332]

knocking on 5 million subs, nice!

[@takingbacktheplanet]

amazing stuff, joe! also incredible they were able to orbit a satellite under the asteroid's own power (gravity) if i understood correctly! wow! :)

[@krateskim4169]

A very good video

[@heydontjudge]

10/10 video, cool science machine

[@skittlesryan7862]

Did anyone else thing that chunk of space rock in the beginning looked a little like the state of Texas

[@ExistenceUniversity]

2:20 It is not just adding material, it is doing for with force. Not all the clumps are gently falling into the mass center, some are coming in hot.

[@Joe-bs9dj]

Love that space bro

[@ArnoldsKtm]

the way we can send out a robot and make it do all that complex stuff is simply astonishing.

[@hornetthehivewing6265]

I'm a big fan of outer space, and have been for as long as I can remember. It's so intriguing!

[@CaoticoFanegasO_o]

Well, many things to say. First of all, hire this Ted guy. He's so passionate about his trade, it would be a shame to spare all he has to teach. I don't know if he would be comfy just looking to the cold, glassy eye of a camera, but he'd have a ton of great ideas for a script (well, or whatever you may call several bunches of scripts). Second, nice coverage of the Bennu sample pod screw trouble. It might be easy to loosen a couple of screws, but it's not easy to loosen them while making sure that not even a speck of metal from the threads is going to contaminate the sample. You didn't have to say it like that, you just left the clues so anyone could figure it out. And last but not least, Osiris is not done! Renamed as Osiris-Apex is going to Apophis!

[@Rosie-And-Friends]

How amazing to be holding something that came from space!

[@enderstarpg6921]

Cool video, but I am left with one question. How can they be sure that the Probe itself didn't contaminate the sample? Like if the amino acid building block were to be detected, how would we tell if it truly came from the rock and not something that got on the Probe during launch or transportation?

[@TarEcthelion]

These are like Long Exposure Photos of space that you can hold on your hands.

[@SaugotChowdhury]

That chunk of rock in the beginning, looks like a map of Texas

[@MORE4SP]

So cool!

[@mujigikabugi3927]

"Earth is a perfectly good planet with annoying biological scum covering it" What a perfect definition especially during these days

[@SpaceflightSimulator]

It has multiple meanings, absolutely!

[@Agent-57]

Well without life Earth is basically just like any other planet out of the nigh infinite planets in the universe. So you are factually wrong.

[@NotSoMuchFrankly]

These days? You mean since we came down from the trees?

[@glennbabic5954]

If you slice open an iron meteorite, there is no contamination inside. It's just an excuse for a space mission!

[@NotSoMuchFrankly]

@@glennbabic5954 Since the iron is very reactive, it can be exposed to a lot of things w/in weeks or days as was mentioned. But also, the outside is immediately compromised and cracks and fissures may not allow you to get a pristine sample even on the inside. In space, you can get a better determinant of the proportions of materials inside because you don't have to slice off the heterogenous parts on the outside.

[@Deltakitty32780]

So awesome😊

[@robbl7209]

Would have been great to explain why the piece you were holding looks like it does -- that it's a *slice* of an asteroid. It may seem self-explanatory, but there are a lot of people who may not figure that out for themselves.

[@jackeysmith19]

Wow this is so cool

[@nicksamek12]

I'd recommend looking more into the Apollo mission quarantine protocols -- they were totally ineffective and would not have worked had the astronauts been infectious.

[@MrBlackSatellite]

Hi Joe, Smart people here!👋

[@starforge5663]

Joe, the ending of video made me gut from my reclining gaming chair, you couldn't have made it just a little bit longer? lol (that was joke btw) and I would name an asteroid mugge because its one of many origins of why we call mugs, mugs. Perhaps in a mug there will be space dust and tell us a thing or 2 about our soler system.

[@bwedesign]

I guess there's no 10-second-rule for falling meteorites.

[@GhostNinja0007]

3:48 First thing I noticed, That rock is shaped oddly like Texas🤣

[@moonshoes11]

Same.

[@carlsoll]

3:59 THAT looks DiGiTaL 😮

[@simplystreaming3282]

Wouldn't the materials used to collect these samples be contaminated as it was made in Earth?

[@kn0bhe4d]

Anything that's sent into space has strict requirements when it's being built to limit contamination. And there are various levels to it as well; satellites will not need as much contamination, but anything that's sent to Mars let's say needs to have very strict requirements so as to not contaminate Mars with Earth biology. I would imagine the same sort of precautions were taken for this mission.

[@simplystreaming3282]

@@kn0bhe4d but there could be microbes that possibly couldn't be eliminated , there is also the risk of contamination while launching ryt

[@kn0bhe4d]

@@simplystreaming3282 Yeah there's no absolute guarantee, we can only take the maximum precautions that we can.

[@jamesmnguyen]

I think they also used a special metal for the capsule/capturing system so they can easily tell what is rock and what is spaceprobe.

[@mattduncil]

I’m curious about the stick “wand” the scientists used.

[@monosodiumglutemate8216]

I'd call the asteroid either Leuleu, Poyppy, or Shlumpy. Nicknames of my kids.

[@jnall5904]

How do you even pronounce that second name

[@karinaabramchuk3815]

Aesthetic ✨️ love the transparent look

[@Wolf950]

Ahh, yes. The machine. Thermo Fisher. Of course. I swear they damn near have a monopoly.

[@Clarence_Mukabi]

❤ This channel

[@mr.johnson3844]

I definitely do not and never have bought the hypothesis that all of the water on earth was deposited over time by asteroids. The idea that enough water to fill the oceans was deposited that way is just so ludicrous to me. It's fantastical.

[@RandyMachoSavage]

Ooouh. Mute point. There, nacho libre.

[@Taranoku]

so close to 5M subs!

[@Ryak1234]

Does solar wind erode asteroids in some way?

[@GreenPoint_one]

I guess. Its roasted ond frozen all the time they come into light or shadow

[@donkeyhobo34]

I'm vegan

[@GreenPoint_one]

@@donkeyhobo34 veganism is eroding too. You dont get nutrients like you need :3

[@MS-qx9uw]

It does in a sense, the irradiation, light pressure,heat, and surface level helium buildup does lead to aging of the surface. But get just a bit below the surface and it’s practically untouched

[@mattkuhn6634]

1:18 Honestly I expected him to say that the amazing thing about that rock was how much it resembles the state of Texas as drawn by a 5 year-old.

[@nightblade628]

This rocks!

[@takenname8053]

I would name an asteroid Toph

[@williamhardee8863]

I originally read this as, “Why NASA Punched an Astronaut,”.

[@foxbat51]

Next they need to upper cut a comet.

[@clipsdaily101]

imagine being that asteroid and a giant earth bug lands on you and takes a bite then leaves

[@nicksamek12]

I was expecting a video on DART based on the title!

[@DunwellAntwi]

I've never been tempted to steal a rock than now.

[@produde33]

What a time to live in!

[@ariadgaia5932]

EEEEEEK! MORE OF THIS PLEASE!!!

[@_TheCollective]

Nasa punched an asteroid because they're pissed off at flat earthers and cant punch them

[@shaunmodipane1]

Nasa: "it was more like a raspberry rather than a punch."

[@planescaped]

"It took 2 years just to-" I was worried he was going to say come up with the Osiris Rex acronym. lol

[@eistheguy3789]

ONE PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNCHHHH

[@michaelmeyers4843]

Joe just casually flexes "Oh yeah I got invited to come look at Bennu samples, no biggie"

[@TheNexusChan]

Im glad the asteroids don't have feelings after getting punched

[@gergelysoki1705]

that sediment called @3:45 Texasidiment

[@devincreislerstudios]

That space rock 🪨 looks like Texas

[@Treed4567]

What I really want to know is how the hell do they come up with these super cool names like osiris-rex while they are still a totally valid acronym.

[@charleshanson9467]

Glad they can still find uncontaminated rocks in space. With all the stuff we're sending up now, it won't be long till a photo of some asteroid comes back with a bolt on it, or a fairing just laying there.

[@Vesperitis]

Who wouldn’t want to punch an asteroid?!

[@munkhboldbaatar-dx2ku]

So close to 5 mil🎉🎉🎉

[@gormanls]

I bought a very small asteroid piece and it is very cool to touch something so old

[@Paul-lf1bq]

Hi Bob