Bennu: Asset or Bad Ass-teroid

By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor

NASA is probing to give us a scoop on what was and what might be.

According to the BBC, “The US space agency (Nasa) has launched a mission to retrieve a rock sample from a 500m-wide asteroid called Bennu.

Scientists hope the material will reveal details about the formation of the planets, and improve our knowledge of how potentially dangerous space objects move through the Solar System.

The probe, dubbed Osiris-Rex, blasted away from Florida on an Atlas rocket at 19:05 local time (00:05 BST).

It will be seven years before it returns to Earth with its bounty.”

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Osiris-Rex is not just bringing back a rock from Bennu but giving us an idea whether the threatening asteroid will be a hit or a miss for us on Earth.

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58 thoughts on “Bennu: Asset or Bad Ass-teroid”

  1. Each day I think the loon has peaked on his idiocy and shocking stupid.  Yesterday he peaked.  He transferred his “I could shoot someone on the street and still be elected” to “she could shoot someone and not be prosecuted”.  He is running out of outrageous and is now recycling his own stupid.  He peaked early and is tap dancing as fast as he can.

    Even his admittance of being a KGB/FSB/SVR tool is not enough.  He played his boy love too far.  Even his wife has dropped off the screen, as some people say, for not getting enough “attention” from him.

  2. daily kos: Supreme Court vacancy watch Day 208: McConnell plots early exit, which screws Paul Ryan

    The Senate is not in today. Because a three and a half-day work week was deemed satisfactory after their seven-week “August” recess. Next week, they might be having that Obamacare fight. Mitch McConnell might also escalate his internal war with the House Freedom Caucus by moving a stop-gap funding bill as early as next week, and then adjourning.

    That would mean the short-term bill to avoid a government shutdown would be entirely up to the House to pass. It couldn’t go back to the Senate because they won’t be there. So the funding McConnell is now negotiating with Harry Reid and President Obama would be what Paul Ryan had to bring to the floor, and that would absolutely enrage the Freedom Caucus, on a number of fronts.

  3. Our (Earth’s) moon is full of asteroidal material. This sounds like a Little Engine That Could mission.

  4. flatus, Luxemburg very big into what bennu might tell us

    bbc:
    How soon until we’re mining asteroids?

    NASA’s mission to the asteroid Bennu aims to retrieve dust and rock samples. Yves Elsen, chairman of the Luxembourg Space Cluster, explains why one day we should prospect on space rock.

    (Picture: A NASA artist’s rendering shows the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu. Credit: AP)
    Release date:
    9 September 2016
    http://bbc.in/2ceFTdq

  5. here’s what their home page says about them:

    The Luxembourg Space Cluster brings together renowned and highly specialised companies and public research organisations in order to develop specific technology topics as well as collaborative RDI projects. The Luxembourg Space Cluster focuses on the following thematic areas: Space telecommunications, Global Navigation Satellite System and Location based Applications, Earth observation, Maritime security and safety, Space related technologies.

    Official member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2005, Luxembourg provides excellent financial, operational and intellectual support and infrastructures in order to help Luxembourg-based companies and research organisations gain access to innovation within the space sector.

  6. Oh, I see why my hackles were up. It was the use of BST in a “quoted” NASA message. We recognize GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and Zulu shortened to Z (military speak for the time at Greenwich). Here’s an interactive graphic. I am typing this comment at 1404zAug16.

  7. contacting the asteroid Bennu

    Did the Scientologists get the pronunciation wrong?  Xenu might not be pleased.

  8. Jamie, thanks for bringing that up.  wiki has a fascinating account of xenu, wonder if they’ve been sued yet.

    Xenu (/ˈziːnuː/), also called Xemu, was, according to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the “Galactic Confederacy” who 75 million years ago brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as “Teegeeack”) in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans (immortal spirits) of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.

    These events are known within Scientology as “Incident II”, and the traumatic memories associated with them as “The Wall of Fire” or “R6 implant”. The narrative of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in earthly events, collectively described as “space opera” by Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that the “R6 implant” (past trauma) was “calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it”.

    Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church’s secret “Advanced Technology”, considered a sacred and esoteric teaching, which is normally only revealed to members who have completed a lengthy sequence of courses costing large amounts of money. The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story’s confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright and trade secrecy. Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard’s notes, and the Internet. In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed the writings by Hubbard and their place within Scientology within the contexts of science fiction, UFO religions, Gnosticism and creation myths.

  9. from the “who cares what Geraldo says” file

    cbs news: Geraldo Rivera says he regrets backing Roger Ailes

    Geraldo Rivera says he’s “filled with regret” for initially discounting the sexual harassment allegations against his former Fox News Channel boss, Roger Ailes, and is apologizing for his skepticism.

    In a lengthy post to his Facebook page Thursday night, Rivera said Ailes is a “deceitful, selfish misogynist” if the charges against him are true.

    [….]

    Rivera said he is paying the price for supporting his former boss. He said he learned Tuesday that HarperCollins has decided not to publish his manuscript, “Geraldo of Arabia, From Tora Bora to Trump,” and said it was a direct result of his support for Ailes and flattering portrayal of him in the book.

     

  10. Perhaps they need a piece of the asteroid to understand what it’s composition is – so they can figure out how to blow it up before it gets here and takes out this mess we’ve created on our blue ball?

    Patd, thanks for the lovely explanation of Xeno and Scientology.

     

  11. dvitale, not my explanation. wiki owns that [just in case a lawsuit is on its way].

    no explanation for that bunch .

    thanks should be to Jamie for alerting us to the cosmic possibility.

  12. DV…  you might like to read the book “Going Clear” by Lawrence Wright.  I highly recommend it for anyone who’s fascinated with the subject of Scientology.  I did do a column on the book here a few yrs ago…   it might still be in the archives.

  13. Geraldo who?  Isn’t he a singer from Nicaragua?  Talk about career failures.

    It is brutal outside already in the D.C. region.  I am putting together a tarp shed and although simple stuff, stick tubes together and tighten connectors, I was well cooked in only an hour.  1407UTC

     

  14. Joy really needs a pair of scissors to snip the microphone cables of those who will not listen when she tells them to shut-up.

  15. OMG, a damned near-full-page op-ed by Mr and Mrs Cheney in this morning’s Journal. I refuse to even scan for a hint of its contents.

  16. realclearpolitics: CNN’s Jake Tapper to Elizabeth Warren: Why Shouldn’t Progressives Who Are Suspicious Of Clinton Vote To “Shake Up The System”?

    “Hillary Clinton has laid out a progressive agenda,” Warren responded. “The way I see it, it is the job of progressives to help her get elected on a progressive agenda. And then work our read ends off to help get that progressive agenda enacted when she is elected.”

    Tapper follows up: “And kind of be a watchdog?”

    “You bet,” she responds.

  17. Space rocks.  Carbon, silica…

    Drumpf is beyond the sanity threshold.   I can’t understand how he’s doing as well among independent voters as he is…except that the incompetent media (e.g. Lauer) focuses on hrc’s e-fucking-mail, not prosecutable, and ignores drumpf’s illegal bribe of Blondi.   Jesus…

  18. oh boy are we gonna hear over and over how Hillary dissed folks out there just like mitt did denigrating the 47%…  media probably will leave out the last part of the statement, the one starting with The other basket…” it’ll be just like the coal miner comment… never fully quoted.

    cbsnews

    “To just be grossly generalist, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call ‘the basket of deplorables,’” Clinton told donors gathered at a Manhattan restaurant. “Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he has lifted them up.

    “He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million,” she continued, referencing Trump’s campaign hire of Breitbart News’ Steve Bannon. “He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.”

    The Democratic nominee noted that “some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but they are not America.”

    Clinton, who was introduced by celebrities Laverne Cox and Barbra Streisand, went on to describe the “other basket.”

    “The other basket, and I know because I look at this crowd, I see friends from all over America here…But that other basket of people are people who feel that government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures,” she said. “They are just desperate for change. Doesn’t really even matter where it comes from.”

  19. Hillary refers to all the haters that follow Trump as a “Basket of Deplorables” and all the rocks on twitter flip over so the snakes can crawl out and scream “not me”

  20. Clinton just managed to hyper-energize this “basket of deplorables”, how nice!  Every last one of them will now vote and donate money to the cause.  It doesn’t matter what she said after that paragraph.  It won’t be covered, and is irrelevant.  Most people will not know what the term ‘grossly generalistic’.

    Really sweet, Hillary was smugly laughing when she said it. Just saw the video.

    Pence has already come out castigating her over her remarks.  I fear that she just evened the race – and we might perhaps see Trump in the lead in the polls by the end of the week.

    This might also boost Johnson up enough to get into the debates.  We’ll see.  I hope I’m wrong about all of this.

    If someone wrote this speech for her, or was aware of it and didn’t do anything – they should be fired.

  21. “Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” folk are not deplorable and deserving strong condemnation?

    well, it would have been more diplomatic to have said their actions and words are deplorable but not they themselves.  she is right tho’ about trumpsters are basket cases.

  22. Absolutely she’s right.  If the right 15% of Americans are unapologetic racists – and they are, and if the base of the Republican party is the right 30% of the country, then guess what?  1/2 of the base of the Republican party are unapologetic racists.

    But – her goal is to WIN this campaign.  I don’t think this is going to help.

  23. With the tarp shed framework up and a nap completed it was time to see if there was a college football game to watch.  None, out of all the channels showing college football, not a single game to watch.  All of the games were a powerhouse beating up a non-contention team, which would not be beaten up except for the money.  Time to stare at the framework and get the energy built up to put the tarp on it.

    HRC’s bucket comment has already been misquoted and attacked.  Listening to Pence is like listening to the most smarmy bastard I ever met.  He makes me feel dirty and needing a very long shower with lots of soap and water to cleanse with.  Hopefully this act with the bloater will finish his public life.

  24. Last night Trump demanded an apology – the attachment above is what Hillary just released a few minutes ago.

  25. click on to see how the apology is being covered by wisn, an abc affiliate. note trump and pence spouted off at the top of the story before they got to her:

    “As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them,” Clinton said. “I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.'”

    and this

    Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, cited the speech in attempting to clarify the Democratic nominee’s comments Friday night.

    “Obviously not everyone supporting Trump is part of the alt right, but alt right leaders are with Trump,” Merrill tweeted, adding, “And their supporters appear to make up half his crowd when you observe the tone of his events.”

    Clinton’s campaign was continuing to dig in Saturday morning as outrage swirled over the comment, though surrogates were emphasizing that Clinton was talking about Trump’s supporters — people who attend his rallies — and not Trump voters, a larger group, in the eyes of the campaign, that includes more moderate Republicans.

  26. Bloomberg, at least, led off with her:

    “Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea,” Hillary Clinton said today in an e-mailed statement. “I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong.”

    before regurgitating the other side.

  27. don’t see much media covering this:
    Mitch McConnell Tried Skipping Over the Two Longest-Waiting Judicial Nominees. They’re Both Black Men.
    Cory Booker, a Black senator, took notice.
    …McConnell proposed that the Senate consider a “bipartisan package” of four nominees: one from California (a state with two Democratic senators), one from Utah (a state with two Republican senators), and two nominees from Pennsylvania (a state with one senator from each party). From a majority leader who’s been slow-walking judicial nominees since taking control of the Senate in January 2015, this package may have seemed like progress. But Sen. Cory Booker, D. N.J., was there to wonder why McConnell had skipped the next two nominees in line.
    One of them was Julien Neals of New Jersey who was nominated in February 2015 and who’s been waiting for a vote on the Senate floor for more than 10 months. The other was Edward Stanton III of Tennessee, who was nominated in May 2015 and whose nomination also has been waiting for more than 10 months on the Senate floor. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, both Republicans, wanted Stanton confirmed last year.
    Neals and Stanton are both Black men — a fact that wasn’t lost on Sen. Booker, who objected to voting on McConnell’s bipartisan package of four nominees. Booker pointed out that Neals has been waiting the longest, and that Stanton was next. “I single those two out not just because one of them is from New Jersey,” Booker said, “but if you look at the list of the next 15 judges, these are the only two African Americans on the list.” Booker said he was sure this was just a coincidence, but went on to describe why the perception alone of skipping two African-American nominees was troubling.

  28.  

    I didn’t realize Trump supporters were so politically correct…

    Also, saw Sully yesterday.  Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart are very good together…

  29. “I didn’t realize Trump supporters were so politically correct”

    od, you forget the rules, they only want drumpf to tell it like it is…  he’s a he and can say heman bully things, but she’s got to always play nice, be pure, and be a lady

    https://youtu.be/TMXehqqR8J8

  30. bbronc: so I take it you didn’t see the ‘noles just whomp up on Charleston 52-8?

    next up Louisville, hopefully same kind of whomping.  go “noles!!!

  31. I did not see any of ’em.  I just turned the tv, while cooling down, and there is Ohio State and some team.  Tied 3-3 in at the end of the first quarter.  I am very sure it will not be that way at the end of the fourth.

    Oh good thing about watching just now.  I do not have to worry about a “heat advisory”.  Just a “coastal flood advisory”.  Seeing how I live about 5 feet above mean sea level I take those seriously.  I run out and put up the “Water Front Property” sign.  Water front property on the Bay adds a cool million to the sale price.

  32. She’s not getting any Trump voters anytime ever so whatever she says is directed at people who are thinking about voting for Trump in the same way Trump is talking to white suburban voters when he is pretending to talk to black voters  – the same voters he has accused of election rigging in Philly.

    He is supported by White Supremacists and David Duke felt empowered to run because of Trump.  I think she did the right thing.

    The half she is talking about are birthers and worse.  People need to be called out on their racism.  Maybe they don’t understand what racism is?  Personally I think they do know.

    Trump his world is turning blue and that is not good for The Troll

    I just saw the “apology” another chance to point out Trump’s big fat mouth
     

  33. I heard a few weeks ago on Faux news about how trump has been honing his twitter skills for the past twenty years?  Although the dude admitted that twitter had not yet been invented, trump had the foresight and insight to express himself in so few characters.  Yes, the beauty queen speak with shallow sputtering of idiocy. What crap…and this crap is on all of the cable shows and news outlets…it used to be sound bites.   Now the trump campaign overloads on press releases and meth talking surrogates.  It is an agitating mess on political acid.   At this point, I think Clinton needs to have a man-sized cage wheeled out at the first debate by beautiful dem women…and demand, as co-founder of ISIS, that trump get inside and keep his mouth shut while she talks.  I also hope that by the third debate, trump is missing and claims he was kidnapped by white nationalist’s group…but unlike Morton Downey, Jr….he appears days later with ‘Ivanka” carved into his forehead.  Let us really get some outrageous antics and publicity stunts as the orchestrated insane media takeover by ailes begins…he is able to do so now that his chin is free to move about the cabin.

    Thx, patd, nice post.

  34. Hey Mike Pence the guy who is on the Trump Train because he was going to be defeated for gov and oddly being Troll’s running mate seemed better.

     

    Your supporters are a basket of deplorables –I challenge you to sit with a random Trmp/pence supporter and see what the believe is true

    You will be horrified and when one of them takes a shot at Clinton it will be your fault.

  35. KCG, I sat in a get together the other night with 3 people.  One was a deputy country exec for the Republican party.  The other two were true moderates who were concerned about Hillary, but ready to support her.

    These type of comments do have consequences.  She needs to be careful.

  36. Interesting familial developments.  A couple of male cousins got their DNA results which gives me my male line.  Unfortunately no brothers or living Uncles/father to can’t get my female Scottish line.  As it turns out I’m from an identified Neanderthal line as well as being related to Rob Roy McGregor and Alexander Hamilton … lol

    I-M253

  37. dv

    It looks the prevailing wisdom is to correct the error and move on

    and she is doing so

  38. Hillary was too generous, Half of Trump supporters are not the basket of deplorables. All of them are. Hope she hangs tough.

    The truth hurts and Karma is a bitch.

  39. Her biggest mistake was to apologize.

    On that one double down.

    “By his statements Donald Trump is a bigot, if you vote for him then you support his bigotry. If that makes you uncomfortable the solution is simple, Don’t do it.”

     

    Then walk away.

     

    Jack

  40. dv, at least she got some media coverage. twice. first for making the statement and second for refining it…. maybe third to respond re apology

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