AskScience AMA Series: We are scientists on the OSIRIS-REx mission, NASA's first mission to collect a pristine sample of an asteroid to return to Earth for future study. The first sample collection attempt is October 20. Ask us anything!

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• AskScience AMA Series: We are scientists on the OSIRIS-REx mission, NASA's first mission to collect a pristine sample of an asteroid to return to Earth for future study. The first sample collection attempt is October 20. Ask us anything!
• In Special Relativity if an object has no mass then it is predisposed to travel at c. Why is that? Or is it an assumption?
• Is the coranavirus actually red? The stylized pictures I see of it always show it as red, do viruses have colors if you look at them under a microscope?
• When we say the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, does that mean it has circled the sun 4.6 billion times or that it is 4.6 billion years as measured in 2020 time old?
• How did Chinese officials know to look for a novel virus in the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak?
• How do we know that mass extinctions happened in the past ?
• Why is it that only some viruses are airborne, if every cough or sneeze has very small droplets?
• Is dark matter predicted to radiate when falling into a black hole?
• When and how did people realize that there is no land under the Arctic ice cap and that there is land in Antarctica?
• Where is the mass of plants coming from?

AskScience AMA Series: We are scientists on the OSIRIS-REx mission, NASA's first mission to collect a pristine sample of an asteroid to return to Earth for future study. The first sample collection attempt is October 20. Ask us anything! Posted: 13 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT If you are traveling over 200 million miles to snag a sample of an asteroid, you want to make sure it's worth it. The following scientists are part of the OSIRIS-REx mission - NASA's first mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth. They have just published a collection of papers that confirm that asteroid Bennu - the target of OSIRIS-REx - is an ideal candidate to reveal clues about the origins of life in our solar system. These discoveries complete the OSIRIS-REx mission's pre-sample collection science requirements and offer insight into the sample of Bennu that scientists will study for generations to come. The discoveries tell us that Bennu: Contains carbon-bearing, organic materials Likely used to interact with water Has a type of porous rock that would offer a new, unique perspective to our meteorite collections on Earth Is made up of an interior not uniform in density Contains ridge-like mounds that stretch from pole to pole and has differently shaped hemispheres Has areas, including our sample site, that have not been exposed to a lot of space weathering Read the press release on these discoveries: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2002/osiris-rex-unlocks-more-secrets-from-asteroid-bennu Participants: Michael Daly - York University/Canadian Space Agency Daniella DellaGiustina - Image Processing Lead Scientist, University of Arizona Jason Dworkin - Project Scientist for the OSIRIS-REx Mission, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Hannah Kaplan - Research Space Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Jay McMahon - University of Colorado Boulder Benjamin Rozitis - The Open University, UK Amy Simon - Planetary Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Ask us about what we've already learned from Bennu and what we can learn from a sample of this asteroid! We'll be answering questions from 2 - 3pm ET (18 - 19 UT), ask us anything!. Proof: https://twitter.com/NASASolarSystem/status/1314594121068113920 Username: /u/nasa submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator [link] [comments]

In Special Relativity if an object has no mass then it is predisposed to travel at c. Why is that? Or is it an assumption? Posted: 13 Oct 2020 04:52 AM PDT I don't know if no mass requires an object to travel at the speed of light is an assumption built into SR or if it is derived from other basic principles. If it's derived, what from? (Don't be afraid to use some maths.) submitted by /u/the6thReplicant [link] [comments]

Is the coranavirus actually red? The stylized pictures I see of it always show it as red, do viruses have colors if you look at them under a microscope? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 01:43 PM PDT submitted by /u/olblueysmith [link] [comments]

When we say the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, does that mean it has circled the sun 4.6 billion times or that it is 4.6 billion years as measured in 2020 time old? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 06:28 PM PDT Same thing with carbon dating. Is our unit of measurement fixed to the length of a year today? Or as you count back and the earth's revolution around the sun takes more time does the unit change? submitted by /u/Foxcecil [link] [comments]

How did Chinese officials know to look for a novel virus in the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 06:09 PM PDT What triggered the search to determine the specific virus? Is there some sort of protocol in place that catches these things? Maybe I'm naive, but I'm impressed with how quickly China was able to determine it was a new virus given how common and broad the symptoms are. submitted by /u/re-redditin [link] [comments]

How do we know that mass extinctions happened in the past ? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 05:00 PM PDT How can we know that ? or even know how many extinctions happened ? submitted by /u/Mars-Goliath [link] [comments]

Why is it that only some viruses are airborne, if every cough or sneeze has very small droplets? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 02:15 PM PDT submitted by /u/DaxTom [link] [comments]

Is dark matter predicted to radiate when falling into a black hole? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 08:56 AM PDT submitted by /u/DrProfJoe [link] [comments]

When and how did people realize that there is no land under the Arctic ice cap and that there is land in Antarctica? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 08:34 AM PDT As far as I understand (I could be wrong), the first Antarctic expeditions (Cook, Lazarev/Bellingshausen, Bransfield, Palmer) didn't reach anything not made of ice. The same, obviously, applies to the Arctic expeditions. submitted by /u/avolodin [link] [comments]

Where is the mass of plants coming from? Posted: 12 Oct 2020 06:04 AM PDT I find it very disconcerting that as my plants grow, the soil level in the pots stays the same. Where is the bulk of mass coming from then? Intuitively I can't believe that the carbon captured from the air can account for all that mass. submitted by /u/me-gustan-los-trenes [link] [comments]

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