Aromatizing the rock

2000/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

On February 14, a NASA probe enters orbit around the asteroid Eros. Although many probes approach, there will be no contact to take samples. This is the first probe sent to study something different from the planets. In addition, due to the failure of the missions of Mars, there were many tensions in the space agency.

In February 1996 the NEAR probe was spaced. It is a probe of the size of the car. His name was chosen as a word game, as the mission also offers the opportunity to do so. The word "near" means "near" in English and, in addition, is a word of sigla, from the set of words Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (Encounter with the asteroid near Earth). Proper name. Most known asteroids are always found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. However, the asteroid Eros has a very elliptical orbit and approaches that of the Earth. For this reason, and for its large size, it became the objective of the mission.

In June 1997 the NEAR probe went from another asteroid to 1,200 kilometers. It is called Matilde and is a very slow rotating body. After taking numerous images, the probe began the journey and in December 1998 it reached the zone of the asteroid Eros. It is an asteroid in the form of a 33 km long potato. He tried to enter orbit, but there were problems and the attempt failed. The ship lost 29 kilos of fuel, but the emergency was overcome.

Finally, a year and two months later (14 February of this year), 260 million kilometers from Earth, the probe entered orbit. From that moment it has been adapting the orbit and in April it will approach up to 50 kilometers of the asteroid area and in December it will be even closer. There will perform the most important measurements.

NEAR will analyze the asteroid surface using sensors and spectrometers. Among other things, they intend to measure the magnetic field of the asteroid, since magnetism is an indicator of iron zones.

There is a moment of concern for the catastrophists, because they say that Eros' probability of colliding with Earth is about twenty. But the situation is optimistic from the point of view of the mission of NASA's NEAR probe.

Asteroids are halfway through the giant planets. For this reason, many times have been proposed as long travel stops. On the other hand, they could be the most suitable places to locate space observatories. Eroski also offers us this possibility, but without the need to go so far. It can be considered as a stopover on trips to Mars. But to carry out ideas like this one, you must first begin to explore and that is the goal of the NEAR probe.