NASA - How Sunlight Pushes Asteroids hDmlB2 BCN8

About

Rotating asteroids have a tough time sticking to their orbits. Their surfaces heat up during the day and cool down at night, giving off radiation that can act as a sort of mini-thruster. This force, called the Yarkovsky effect, can cause rotating asteroids to drift widely over time, making it hard for scientists to predict their long-term risk to Earth. To learn more about the Yarkovsky effect, NASA is sending a spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx will observe how Bennu’s shape, brightness, and surface features influence the strength of the Yarkovsky effect, helping scientists to better predict Bennu’s orbit over time and pin down its long-term risk.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11964

Learn more about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu: http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

Visit the University of Arizona’s OSIRIS-REx website: http://www.asteroidmission.org/

Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.html

Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC

Or find us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/NASAGoddard

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Wikimedia Commons, in Wikimedia Commons

Licence or status

Public domain, as the Wikimedia Commons states it.

Rights statement

Public domain

Credit

NASA Goddard

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed