WEBVTT - From the Vault: In the Name of Osiris 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:08.640 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:10.000 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:12.560 And I am Joe McCormick, and it is Saturday, so 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:14.800 we are heading down into the vault for an older 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:18.400 episode of the show. This one originally published on April ninth, 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.360 twenty twenty four, and it's called In the Name of Osiris. 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:23.560 I think it was a follow up of our series 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:24.279 on Osiris. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.160 That's right. This one, I believe, mostly revolves around things 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.920 in the scientific realm that are just named after Osiris 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:33.520 but are still fun to talk about. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:48.479 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.200 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Last week 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.200 on the show, we did a two parter about the 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:59.680 ancient Egyptian underworld fertility god Osiris, and today's episode is 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.600 kind of a spin off of that. Well, I think 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.040 you're going to have more fun if you go into 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.200 this episode with some familiarity regarding the mythology in question. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.320 So I would say, if you have a choice in 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.880 the matter, yeah, go back and listen to the two 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.959 previous episodes about Osiris the God and surrounding mythology. Go 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.360 ahead and listen to those, but it's also not completely necessary. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.840 The basic gist here is okay, Osiris is a mythological 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.080 figure who continues to resonate with people around the world, 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.360 and even his name has this kind of regal mystery 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.920 to many of us. Just to say the name allowed Osiris, 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.200 you know, it kind of summons a certain amount of 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:44.960 mystery and I don't know, strangeness and power into the 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.000 room with you. And scientists are far from immune to 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.120 such charms. So we have various things in the scientific 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.560 and technological world that are named after him. In some 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:59.160 cases we're talking about highly tortured acronyms. Other times there 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.200 seems to be, you know, even less connection. So we're 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.680 not going to touch on everything in the scientific and 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.720 technological world that is named after Osiris. There are some 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:09.320 things we're not going to get into, like there is 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:14.079 an exoplanet that is nicknamed Osirius, not officially named Osiris. 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.120 But we are going to talk about two things in particular. 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:19.679 You know, it's an opportunity to chat about some very 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.360 deserving science in the name of Osiris, as you know, 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.040 as well as some scientific tidbits that we might not 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:27.400 otherwise have discussed. 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.840 Right, So, first up, I wanted to talk about a 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:36.080 couple of aspects of Osiris REX, which was the name 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.160 of an asteroid sample return mission operated by NASA, as 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.280 well as the original name of its associated spacecraft, but 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.520 it has since been resurrected with a new identity. It 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.760 has now been reborn as Osiris APEX. I'll explain that 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:53.480 in a minute. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.040 Well, that sounds really cool too, and I mean, if 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.240 nothing else, this is just an awesome name for a 0:02:59.240 --> 0:02:59.919 space mission. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.720 Yeah, I'm trying to discern the mythological significance of going 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.200 from Rex to APEX. I guess that would be like 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.600 going from Osiris the King to Osiris the Peak. 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.000 That's what Apex means. I think in either a case, 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.280 I mean it is fitting to name things in space 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.200 or sent into space after Osiris, given the ancient Egyptians 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:22.680 fascination with the stars. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.800 Fair enough, So I'll start with just a very short 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.200 rough sketch of the mission history and then come back 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.880 and talk about a couple of aspects of it. So 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:37.080 Osiris REX launched in September twenty sixteen, and in twenty 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.840 eighteen successfully achieved a deep space rendezvous with its target, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.400 an asteroid called one oh one nine five five Binu 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:52.160 b NNU. The spacecraft spent roughly two years after that 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.880 orbiting Binu, mapping its surface, doing analysis of the asteroid 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.960 from orbit, and trying to select an ideal landing zone, 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.600 which proved a bit more difficult than had originally been anticipated. 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:10.320 In October of twenty twenty, o Cyrus Rex managed to 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.960 touch down on the surface of Binu and collect a 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.800 sample of its regolith. The regolith is the rocky outer 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:20.920 soil covering the object. But it was not like a 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.800 full landing where it sat down and chilled for a while. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.960 It was a touch and ghost sampling operation, so it 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.760 touched down, it sort of poked the asteroid with a 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.520 mechanism called its sampling arm, so it had kind of 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.040 a leg or a limb that came out below it 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.080 that poked down into the asteroid's regolith, did a blast 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.520 of nitrogen gas to try to stir up some of 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.160 the soil, captured a bunch of it, and then blasted 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:48.960 right back. 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:50.760 Off its kind of like a mosquito. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.520 Didn't land for as long as a mosquito, though, it 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.120 was more like if a mosquito just had to kind 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.360 of like jab you and then retreat. Gotcha, like if 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.440 a mosquito would fly down, poke you hit your blood 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.360 vessels under the skin with a blast of nitrogen gas, 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.160 cause a little sort of explosion of blood, and then 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.200 just suck up a bunch of that as it is 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.680 bouncing back off of your skin. But anyway, the sampling 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.599 was successful. It got a significant amount of the material 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.719 from Binu, and then it lifted off and returned to Earth, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.960 which and so the spacecraft didn't fully return to Earth, 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.640 but it had a capsule that was for the sample return, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.039 which touched down on Earth. I think it landed in 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:42.679 Utah in September twenty twenty three, and the asteroid soil 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.200 sample was intact and it was ready to be studied. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.880 So that is something we now have in the possession 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.760 of Earth scientists who have already gotten to work analyzing 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:54.720 it and doing science on the basis of it. 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:59.680 Yeah, it's a pretty impressive technological achievement, you know, not 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.400 even just all the details of just making sure everything 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:04.760 lines up just ride here. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:06.920 In many ways, I mean, there are a lot of 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.360 things that are hard about doing a mission like this, 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.320 So of course there is, just there are the navigational 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.080 challenges of trying to intersect with a small, fast moving 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.599 object in space, like an asteroid. There is once you 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.679 get there, the selection of the landing zone, this difficult 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.600 touch and go maneuver, to try to capture a piece 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.960 of the asteroid some soil from it without contaminating it, 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:35.680 to get that safely back to Earth on intact and uncontaminated. 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.159 And then also things people might not even think of. 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:43.640 For example, when the spacecraft and the probe were conducting 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.720 their operations on the asteroid surface, that's not something that 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.719 like a human pilot can operate in real time with 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.520 a joystick because it's so far away. There's a significant 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.919 travel time for information back and forth between mission control 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.480 here on Earth and the probe. So essentially these these 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.640 maneuvers had to be pre programmed so that the probe 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.400 could carry them out on its own, because there wouldn't 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.720 be enough real time exchange of information for like a 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.400 human pilot to see what's happening in the moment and adjust. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.360 You have to like make sure you've programmed it correctly 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.760 in advance, and it can do what it needs to 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.840 do without you being able to intervene. But anyway, after 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:30.080 the successful conclusion of the Osiris Rex mission, the spacecraft 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.680 was given a new mission and a new name to 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.640 rendezvous with and study the asteroid nine nine nine four 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.480 two Apofice, and, in keeping with its new role, the 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.960 new name Osiris APEX. So, as you previewed a minute ago, 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.040 rob Osirius Rex is an acronym. It's one of these 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.800 kind of I always wonder how these things exactly come 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.360 together when, like, you know, you select all the things 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.880 and they're supposed to stand for what it actually does, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.320 but then it makes a word that already exists, and 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.600 you're like, that didn't happen by accident? Who organizes the 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:07.720 acronym formation process? 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:09.960 I don't know. Yeah, it's like it's one of these 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:12.760 situations where you sort of you get in within spitting 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.680 distance of a really cool word, and then you start 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.720 turning the screws to get it a little closer, you know, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.200 because you're not hitting Osiris rex, you know, first try 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:24.600 with no manipulation. 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.360 Certainly not so it's not without it being an Osiris miracle. 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:36.600 But okay, So it stands for origins, spectral interpretation, resource identification, 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:41.920 and security regalith Explorer, So those parts of the name 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:46.559 are basically a summary of what Osiris Rex was meant 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.560 to study or what types of questions it was meant 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.840 to help illuminate. So, for example, origins refers to the 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.400 fact that the target of the mission is what has 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:02.160 sometimes been called a time capsule. Asteroid. Binu was selected 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.880 because it is thought to be a pristine four point 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.800 five million year old, carbon rich asteroid that has been 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:16.319 preserved in essentially the same condition since the Solar System 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.520 was formed. So by looking at what it's made of, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.680 we can learn more about the early days of the 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:26.080 Solar System and learn about the initial distribution of things 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.160 of various minerals and organic compounds and things like that. 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.240 It'll help teach us more about how the Solar System 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.280 was formed and give us points of comparison between it 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.559 and other objects in the Solar System that have been 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:44.280 changed more over time. And so the spectral interpretation part 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.319 this refers to the use of spectral analysis and astronomy 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.040 looking at patterns of light colors reflected off of an 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.520 object to determine its composition. The respectral analysis of Binu, 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.079 of course, and there is spectral analysis of asteroids, even 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.359 just from scopic observatories to try to determine their composition, 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.160 so it would help illuminate those questions as well. There 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.920 is a resource identification in the name that's understanding the 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:14.880 chemical and geological makeup of a carbon rich asteroid. The 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.960 security in the name is an interesting thing, you might think, Wait, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.000 what is this referred to security? Well, that refers to 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.760 security for the whole of Earth, because it turns out, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.440 of all the asteroids we know about today, Binu is 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.160 one of the most potentially dangerous to our planet. Binu 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.320 passes near to Earth about once every six years, and 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.520 scientists have calculated that in the year twenty one eighty two, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.960 its path will bring it close enough that there is 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.080 about a one in twenty seven hundred chance of a 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.559 collision on that pass. So you can get some relief 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.400 from the relentless like asteroid bound for Earth headlines in 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.280 that when it comes to the larger known space objects 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.240 and the most troubling ones won't get close to us 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.400 for a long time, and even when they do, based 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.880 on what we know today, the chances of a direct 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.800 hit are like one in several thousand at worst. Now, 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.920 how bad would it be. If Binu did hit Earth, 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.520 it would be not as bad as some impacts in 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.360 Earth's history, but it would be quite bad. Benu is 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.160 about half a kilometer wide with a mass of about 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.600 sixty seven million metric tons, so it would probably not 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.160 be large enough to cause worldwide calamity. It wouldn't be 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.440 like the you know, the object associated with the death 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.520 of the non avian dinosaurs. It would not be like 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.520 the KPg extinction object, but it would It would be bad. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.520 It would be extremely locally destructive depending on where and 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.360 how it hit. So part of the mission was also 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.600 focused on studying the forces acting on the trajectory of 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.760 asteroids so we can better predict their course over time, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:02.880 because probably the thing we need to best understand in 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:08.400 order to defend Earth from dangerous near earth objects is 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:13.120 a very accurate prediction system for the future movements of 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:18.760 space objects. Right now, we can predict with pretty good accuracy, 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.080 but over time that accuracy degrades. Right, so the farther 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.240 out into the future you're looking, the harder it is 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:30.760 to predict how close something is going to be. And specifically, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.600 the Osiris REX mission was looking at the influence of 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.160 something called the Yarkovsky effect, and to do a short 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.600 summary of that, when an asteroid is flying through space 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:45.200 and rotating. This is specifically for a rotating object, its 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:50.520 surface goes through patterns of heating and cooling depending on 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.440 which side is facing the Sun. So as one side 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.160 of the asteroid faces the Sun, it gets star baked 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.719 and it heats up, and then as the asteroid rotates, 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.960 the hot side turns away from the Sun and cools, 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.839 and that cooling means the asteroid is radiating infrared photons 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:13.679 into space. This radiation actually provides its own small amount 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:18.000 of thrust, so as it's radiating that heat off into space, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.439 there's a bit of a push created there, and the 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.800 effect is fairly small, but for relatively small objects and 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.600 affecting the path over large periods of time, it can 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.640 make a big difference. This does affect the asteroid's path 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.280 through space, which makes it harder to predict the orbit 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.640 of a rotating asteroid farther into the future, and that's 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:42.200 something that we need to be able to do if 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.640 we want to identify threatening near earth objects and protect 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.440 Earth by potentially pushing them off course. 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.280 Right right, which to your point is essential with objects 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.240 that we already know are going to get maybe a 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.960 little too close for comfort. Anyway, we need a note 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.880 like to what degree these estimates can be off? You know, exactly, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.000 how how much sway there is in the movement of 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.400 one of these asteroids in our predictions exactly. 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.959 And then finally, so that's the Osiris part of the name. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.240 That finally there's the REX part that stands for Regolith Explorer, 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.880 and this is the sample return aspect of the mission. 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:23.000 So Osiris REX was the first successful US mission to 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.760 return a sample from an asteroid. That was not the 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:30.840 first such mission worldwide. Actually, the first successful asteroid sample 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.400 return was carried out by the Japanese Space Agency. That 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.600 was the Hyabusa probe, which got a sample of small 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.360 dust grains from an asteroid called twenty five one three 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.560 Itokawa and return to the material to Earth in twenty ten. 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.680 Though Osiris REX is not just a duplicate of that 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.400 mission because it targeted a different type of asteroid, and 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.560 also Binu was able to get a lot more just 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.760 mass of material returned to Earth for us to work on. 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.160 Now here's something about the naming of this asteroid that 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.280 is kind of backwards, of which is kind of the 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:10.120 opposite of what you might expect. The asteroid Binu got 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.560 its name by association with the Osiris REX mission, so 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.360 it was originally called nineteen ninety nine RQ thirty six, 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.320 but in advance of the mission in twenty thirteen, the 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:27.360 Planetary Society held a competition to name the asteroid, and 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.120 a kid from North Carolina who is nine years old 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.400 at the time named Mike Pusio came up with the 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.440 idea of naming it Binu, which was the name of 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:42.440 a pre existing deity from Egyptian mythology, an animal formed 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.640 god often depicted as a long legged bird, though there's 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.000 some dispute over which natural bird, if any, it's supposed 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.800 to correspond to. I'll talk about that a bit more 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.960 in a minute. But Pusio apparently picked the name for 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:01.760 the asteroid because of the Osiris RECX probes resemblance to 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.280 a long legged bird and rob if you look, I 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.920 attached an image of the spacecraft here for you to 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.640 have a gander at. I can see this here, so 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.360 the solar panel flaps are very much like wings. 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.640 Yeah, yeah, excellent. You know, I got to hand it 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.760 to this nine year old. This is a great space 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:26.720 nerd and a great mythology nerd, two great nerdoms for anyone, 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:28.600 especially this at this age. 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.080 Now we're getting a little off track of the mission here, 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.920 but I actually got interested in the concept of Binu itself, 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.160 and the context of this episode is the Egyptian mythology. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.680 So I wanted to follow this tunnel under the pyramids 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.520 for a moment. So Binu, you can if you're looking 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.400 this up. It's sometimes as the god's name is spelled 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.880 Binu with two ends or Banu with one n so 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.360 b in U. Sometimes the asteroid is with two ends. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.080 It is a figure associated with the creation of the 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.320 world and with the creator Sun God. And for what 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.280 I'm about to discuss. My main sources Geraldine Pinch's Handbook 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:12.359 of Egyptian Mythology. So, according to Pinch, in some Egyptian myths, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:17.200 Binu is said to be the oldest creature living during 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.359 the creation of the world, when a hill of dry 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.199 land was first raised out of the darkness, out of 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.359 the waters of chaos, the Binu bird landed on this earth. 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.879 So it was the first living animal, and its cry 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.240 was the first sound. The moment of its cry marked 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.280 the first moment of time, and the cry of the 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.560 Binu bird will also sound again at the end of 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.080 the world to mark the time when all order will 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:48.639 again descend into chaos. The Binu bird seems to have 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.080 been related to, or possibly the inspiration for, the Greek 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.280 myth of the phoenix. In the Egyptian context, there was 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.760 a binu bird that was believed to dwell in Heliopolis, 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.480 and kings would pray to the bird for the renewal 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.000 of strength after they had been in power for thirty years. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.560 And here I just want to read a section from 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.960 Pinch on the connection between the Binu bird and Osiris 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.720 as well as another major god from the pantheon. Quote, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.840 both Ray and Osiris could be identified with the Binu bird, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:25.040 an expression of the secret knowledge that these two gods 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:29.679 were one. As a manifestation of Osiris, the Binu bird 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.560 led the spirits of the dead through the dangers of 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.000 the underworld. Some spells in the Book of the Dead 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.800 aim to assist the dead to transform themselves into Binu 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.720 birds so that they can travel freely between worlds. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.080 All right, so a kind of psycho bomb. 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.000 Here, Yeah, I think it's interesting that you would get 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.480 both that so the binu could be a creature that's 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.879 sort of a guide because remember in you know, there 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.880 are different visions of the Egyptian and afterlife. But in 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.840 some views of this, you know, it's an adventure. It's 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:06.760 like a journey that you have to go through and 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.120 face obstacles along the way. And there is also there's 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.879 the famous judgment, the weighing of the heart against the 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.040 feather of mott. But there are also, you know, the 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.400 these trials you must go through, like facing facing dangers 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.440 throughout the landscape of the dead, and the Binu bird 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:26.680 here apparently apparently could be a guide in that process. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.240 But you could also, if you knew the right spells, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.200 just turn into a binu bird, which seems even better. 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:35.600 Now coming back to whether this bird has a counterpart 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:40.159 in nature, Early texts describing the binu bird seem to 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.600 be talking about a yellow wagtail, which is a small 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:47.200 bird that eats insects and tends to seek out wet, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.639 open countries such as marshland. However, Pinch notes that in 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.320 later art the binu bird is depicted somewhat differently as 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:59.600 a huge heron, and this is why you'll see pictures 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.800 of a hair and often if you google Binu, this 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.680 is I think more New Kingdom art. And I found 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:07.159 a photo of some of this art for you to 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.200 look at here rob and the outline here Binu is 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.720 a heron that would have been taller than a human 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.080 with its neck outstretched, so a very big heron, and 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.879 extant herons can get quite large. The still living Goliath 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.720 heron or Ardia goliath can reach a height of about 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.760 five feet or roughly one hundred and fifty centimeters. But 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:32.320 apparently there was an extinct giant heron that grew even larger, 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:38.120 known today as the Binu heron or Ardia binuids, bones 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.439 of which have been found from the Arabian Peninsula dating 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.919 back to the third millennium BCE. So this is a 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.520 giant heron that would have been alive during human history 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:52.480 here and so this isn't known, but it has been 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.840 speculated that this bird could have inspired the iconography of 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.520 Binu and thus also perhaps the story of the Fetes. 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.200 Fascinating now, how much larger was this like a twenty 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:09.200 foot tall heron? No, it is bigger than any living heron, 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:11.680 but not by a huge amount. I think it would 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.960 have been roughly maybe six feet tall, still a big bird. 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.280 Yeah, absolutely, I mean it just there any kind of 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.879 heron species you encounter in the wild, it's it's kind 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:25.480 of a breathtaking and magical experience and imagining like the 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:31.080 largest of herons here, this extinct species. This would have 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:41.359 been quite an impressive side. 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.280 Now, before we move on from Osiris Rex, there is 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.920 one interesting thing I wanted to talk about from the 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:53.560 sampling portion of the mission. Apparently this asteroid had some 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.040 surprises waiting for us when we got there. So I 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.800 mentioned already that the sampling mechanism how work to get 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:03.280 some of the regulith from the surface of this asteroid. 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:07.480 It did not involve a permanent landing, so you didn't 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.679 have to worry about that. It was a touch and 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.840 go operation, so you would descend, you would poke the 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.640 surface with the sampling arm, issue a blast of nitrogen gas, 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.600 scoop up a bunch of what was stirred up, and 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.320 then blast off and retreat immediately. But despite this, once 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:30.400 we actually reached the asteroid, it proved a lot trickier 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.520 of an object to touch down on than was initially 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.919 expected because it had been thought that the surface of 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.200 Binu would be relatively smooth, or at least have large 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:44.600 smooth patches. I think the asteroid that had been targeted 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:49.240 by the Japanese Hyabusa probe had more kind of beachy areas, 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:52.480 you know, with like smooth, fine grained areas where you 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:55.719 know you could select a good landing zone. But for 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:58.439 some reason, Binu was when we got there, more of 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.600 a sort of a hell of bl It was a 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:06.040 very rocky, bouldery surface, more uneven than expected. So the 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.439 team had to very carefully map out the surface to 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:12.639 select an ideal landing spot, and there were not many. 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.399 They ended up selecting a place that was known as 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:20.679 the Nightingale Crater. But then there was another surprise waiting 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.560 when they actually went to initiate the touchdown and sample 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:30.040 retrieval moment. So the craft was descending and it poked 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:34.919 the asteroid, and then the sampling arm sank. It sank 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.119 into the surface. I've seen this described as like poking 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:41.240 into a swamp. Now, of course, it's not actually that 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:46.360 there was liquid water on the surface of Benu. Instead, 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:51.040 it's just that the soil covering its surface was a 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.800 lower density than expected, so the sampling arm just kind 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:59.000 of plunged in. I want to read a quote here 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:03.040 from a space Died Calm article by Teresa Pultova talking 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:03.800 about this moment. 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:04.920 Quote. 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.840 The descent was smooth, but when Osiris wrex's sample collection 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:13.840 device pressed into the asteroid surface, something unexpected happened. Contrary 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:18.040