WEBVTT - In the Name of Osiris 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:14.400 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.160 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.680 Last week on the show, we did a two parter 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:25.040 about the ancient Egyptian underworld fertility god Osiris, and today's 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.120 episode is kind of a spin off of that. Well, 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.520 I think you're going to have more fun if you 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.680 go into this episode with some familiarity regarding the mythology 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.760 in question. So I would say, if you have a 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:40.960 choice in the matter, yeah, go back and listen to 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:46.200 the two previous episodes about Osiris the god and surrounding mythology. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:48.680 Go ahead and listen to those. But it's also not 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.199 completely necessary. The basic gist here is, okay, Osiris is 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.640 a mythological figure who continues to resonate with people around 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.320 the world, and even his name has this kind of 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.120 regal myss to many ob us. Just to say the 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.480 name allowed Osiris, you know, it kind of summons a 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:10.200 certain amount of mystery and I don't know, strangeness and 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.319 power into the room with you. And scientists are far 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.400 from immune to such charms. So we have various things 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.440 in the scientific and technological world that are named after him. 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.120 In some cases we're talking about highly tortured acronyms. Other 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.240 times there seems to be, you know, even less connection. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.039 So we're not going to touch on everything in the 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.160 scientific and technological world that is named after Osiris. There 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.080 are some things we're not going to get into, like 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:39.160 there is an exoplanet that is nicknamed Osirius, not officially 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.119 named Osiris. But we are going to talk about two 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.959 things in particular. You know, it's an opportunity to chat 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.400 about some very deserving science in the name of Osiris, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.520 as you know, as well as some scientific tidbits that 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.440 we might not otherwise have discussed. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.840 Right, So first up, I wanted to talk about a 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:02.080 couple of aspects of Osiris Rex, which was the name 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:07.160 of an asteroid sample return mission operated by NASA, as 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:11.280 well as the original name of its associated spacecraft, but 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.520 it has since been resurrected with a new identity. It 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.760 has now been reborn as Osiris APEX. I'll explain that 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:19.520 in a minute. 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.040 Well that sounds really cool too, and I mean, if 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.240 nothing else, this is just an awesome name for a 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:25.959 space mission. 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.760 Yeah, I'm trying to discern the mythological significance of going 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.200 from Rex to Apex. I guess that would be like 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.560 going from Osiris the King to Osiris the Peak. That's 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:37.480 what Apex means. 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:39.520 I think in either a case, I mean it is 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.680 fitting to name things in space or sent into space 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:48.520 after Osiris, given the ancient Egyptians fascination with the stars. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.840 Fair enough, so I'll start with just a very short 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.240 rough sketch of the mission history and then come back 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.000 and talk about a couple of aspects of it. So 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:03.080 Osiris REX launched in September twenty sixteen, and in twenty 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.880 eighteen successfully achieved a deep space rendezvous with its target, 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.400 an asteroid called one oh one nine five five Binu 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:18.160 b NNU. The spacecraft spent roughly two years after that 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.960 orbiting Binu, mapping its surface, doing analysis of the asteroid 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.040 from orbit, and trying to select an ideal landing zone, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.640 which proved a bit more difficult than had originally been anticipated. 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:36.360 In October of twenty twenty, o Cyrus REX managed to 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.960 touch down on the surface of Binu and collect a 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.840 sample of its regolith. The regolith is the rocky outer 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.960 soil covering the object. But it was not like a 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.840 full landing where it sat down and chilled for a while. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.960 It was a touch and go sampling operation, so it 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.800 touched down, it sort of poked the asteroid with a 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.000 mechanism called its sampling arms, had kind of a leg 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.240 or a limb that came out below it that poked 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.800 down into the asteroids regolith, did a blast of nitrogen 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.760 gas to try to stir up some of this. The 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.440 soil captured a bunch of it and then blasted right 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:19.120 back off it kind of like a mosquito. Didn't land 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:20.880 for as long as a mosquito, though, it was more 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.400 like if a mosquito just had to kind of like 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.000 jab you and then retreat. Gotcha, like if a mosquito 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.200 would fly down poke you, hit your blood vessels under 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.080 the skin with a blast of nitrogen gas, cause a 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.760 little sort of explosion of blood, and then just suck 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.240 up a bunch of that as it is bouncing back 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.520 off of your skin. But anyway, the sampling was successful. 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.520 It got a significant amount of the material from Binu, 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:52.359 and then it lifted off and returned to Earth, which 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.400 and so the spacecraft didn't fully return to Earth, but 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.600 it had a capsule that was for the sample return 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.800 which touchdown on Earth. I think it landed in Utah 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:09.159 in September twenty twenty three, and the asteroid soil sample 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.360 was intact and it was ready to be studied. So 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.000 that is something we now have in the possession of 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.919 Earth scientists who have already gotten to work analyzing it 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:20.760 and doing science on the basis of it. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.719 Yeah, it's a pretty impressive technological achievement, you know, not 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.279 even getting in to just all the details of just 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:30.640 making sure everything lines up just right. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.800 Here in many ways. I mean, there are a lot 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.400 of things that are hard about doing a mission like this. 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.000 So of course there's just there are the navigational challenges 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.560 of trying to intersect with a small, fast moving object 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.200 in space like an asteroid. There is once you get there, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.120 the selection of the landing zone, this difficult touch and 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.839 go maneuver to try to capture a piece of the 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.960 asteroid some soil from it without contaminating it, to get 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:02.039 that safely back to Earth on intact and uncontaminated. And 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.279 then also things people might not even think of. For example, 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:10.520 when the spacecraft and the probe were conducting their operations 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.080 on the asteroid surface. That's not something that like a 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.599 human pilot can operate in real time with a joystick. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.240 Because it's so far away, there's a significant travel time 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.320 for information back and forth between mission control here on 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:30.359 Earth and the probe. So essentially, these maneuvers had to 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.360 be pre programmed so that the probe could carry them 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.240 out on its own, because there wouldn't be enough real 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.200 time exchange of information for like a human pilot to 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.000 see what's happening in the moment and adjust. You have 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.080 to like make sure you've programmed it correctly in advance 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.360 and it can do what it needs to do without 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.840 you being able to intervene. But anyway, after the successful 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.480 conclusion of the Osiris Rex mission, the spacecraft was given 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.720 a new mission and a new name to rendezvous with 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.279 and study the asteroid nine nine nine four two Apophice, and, 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:09.320 in keeping with its new role, the new name Osiris APEX. So, 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.440 as you previewed a minute ago, rob O Cyrus Rex 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.600 is an acronym. It's one of these kind of I 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.680 always wonder how these things exactly come together when, like 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.040 you know, you select all the things and they're supposed 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.360 to stand for what it actually does, but then it 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.120 makes a word that already exists, and you're like, that 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:33.720 didn't happen by accident. Who organizes the acronym for formation process? 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:34.200 I don't know. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.760 Yeah, it's like it's one of these situations where you 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.440 sort of you get in within spitting distance of a 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.960 really cool word and then you start turning the screws 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.520 to get it a little closer, you know, because you're 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.640 not hitting Osiris REX. You know, first try with no manipulation. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:55.400 Certainly not so it's not without it being an Osiris miracle, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:01.840 but okay. So it stands for origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:07.720 Identification and Security regalith Explorer, So those parts of the 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:12.080 name are basically a summary of what Osiris REX was 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.320 meant to study or what types of questions it was 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.680 meant to help illuminate. So, for example, origins refers to 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.000 the fact that the target of the mission is what 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.600 has sometimes been called a time capsule. Asteroid Binu was 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:33.600 selected because it is thought to be a pristine four 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.600 point five million year old, carbon rich asteroid that has 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.920 been preserved in essentially the same condition since the Solar 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.400 System was formed. So by looking at what it's made 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.600 of we can learn more about the early days of 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.440 the Solar system and learn about the initial distribution of 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:56.160 things of various minerals and organic compounds and things like that. 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.280 It'll help teach us more about how the Solar system 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.319 was formed and give us points of comparison between it 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:05.560 and other objects in the Solar System that have been 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:10.280 changed more over time. And so the spectral interpretation part 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.360 this refers to the use of spectral analysis and astronomy 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.040 looking at patterns of light colors reflected off of an 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.520 object to determine its composition. The respectral analysis of Binu, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.120 of course, and there is spectral analysis of asteroids even 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:29.360 from just from telescopic observatories to try to determine their composition, 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.200 So it would help illuminate those questions as well. There 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.920 is a resource identification in the name that's understanding the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.920 chemical and geological makeup of a carbon rich asteroid. The 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.000 security in the name is an interesting thing. Might think, wait, 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.040 what is this referra to security? Well, that refers to 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.800 security for the whole of Earth, because it turns out, 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.480 of all the asteroids we know about today, Binu is 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.160 one of the most potentially dangerous to our planet Binu 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:03.360 passes near to Earth about once every six years, and 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.600 scientists have calculated that in the year twenty one eighty two, 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.960 its path will bring it close enough that there is 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.080 about a one in twenty seven hundred chance of a 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.600 collision on that pass. So you can get some relief 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.440 from the relentless like asteroid bound for Earth headlines in 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.319 that when it comes to the larger known space objects, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.280 even the most troubling ones won't get close to us 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.440 for a long time, and even when they do, based 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.920 on what we know today, the chances of a direct 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.840 hit are like one in several thousand at worst. Now, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.959 how bad would it be if Binu did hit Earth. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.520 It would be not as bad as some impacts in 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.400 Earth's history, but it would be quite bad. Benu is 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.160 about half a kilometer wide with a mass of about 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.600 sixty seven million metric tons, so it would probably not 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.160 be large enough to cause worldwide calamity. It wouldn't be 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.160 like the you know, the object to sonociated with the 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.400 death of the non avian dinosaurs. It would not be 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.120 like the KPg extinction object, but it would It would 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.880 be bad. It would be extremely locally destructive, depending on 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.680 where and how it hit. So part of the mission 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:18.600 was also focused on studying the forces acting on the 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.840 trajectory of asteroids so we can better predict their course 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:27.280 over time, because probably the single thing we need to 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:33.079 best understand in order to defend Earth from dangerous near 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:38.040 Earth objects is a very accurate prediction system for the 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.760 future movements of space objects. Right now, we can predict 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:47.199 with pretty good accuracy, but over time that accuracy degrades 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.920 right so the farther out into the future you're looking, 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:54.280 the harder it is to predict how close something is 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:58.480 going to be. And specifically, the Osiris REX mission was 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.160 looking at the influence of something the Yarkovsky effect, and 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.199 to do a short summary of that. When an asteroid 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.800 is flying through space and rotating, this is specifically for 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:14.480 a rotating object, its surface goes through patterns of heating 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.160 and cooling depending on which side is facing the sun. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.880 So as one side of the asteroid faces the sun, 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.040 it gets star baked and it heats up, and then 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.719 as the asteroid rotates, the hot side turns away from 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.520 the Sun and cools, and that cooling means the asteroid 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:37.840 is radiating infrared photons into space. This radiation actually provides 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:42.800 its own small amount of thrust, so as it's radiating 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.640 that heat off into space, there's a bit of a 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:50.520 push created there, and the effect is fairly small, but 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:55.120 for relatively small objects and affecting the path over large 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.880 periods of time, it can make a big difference. This 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.680 does affect the asteroid's path through space, which makes it 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.120 harder to predict the orbit of a rotating asteroid farther 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.520 into the future. And that's something that we need to 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.199 be able to do if we want to identify threatening 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.480 near Earth objects and protect Earth by potentially pushing them 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:14.480 off course. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.760 Right right, which to your point is is essential with 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.160 objects that we already know are going to get maybe 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.680 a little too close for comfort. Anyway, we need a 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:27.720 note like to what degree these estimates can be off, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.600 you know, exactly how much sway there is in the 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.439 movement of one of these asteroids in our predictions exactly. 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.000 And then finally, so that's the OSIRIS part of the name. 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.280 That finally there's the REX part that stands for Regolith Explorer, 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.880 and this is the sample return aspect of the mission. 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:49.000 So OSIRIS REX was the first successful US mission to 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.320 return a sample from an asteroid that it was not 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:56.479 the first such mission worldwide. Actually, the first successful asteroid 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.959 sample return was carried out by the Japanese space Agent 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.640 See That was the Hyabusa probe, which got a sample 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.559 of small dust grains from an asteroid called twenty five 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.080 one forty three Itokawa and returned to the material to 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.680 Earth in twenty ten. Though Osiris Rex is not just 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.680 a duplicate of that mission because it targeted a different 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.160 type of asteroid, and also Binu was able to get 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.040 a lot more just mass of material returned to Earth 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.880 for us to work on. Now here's something about the 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.440 naming of this asteroid that is kind of backwards of 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.680 which is kind of the opposite of what you might expect. 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:38.880 The asteroid Binu got its name by association with the 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.760 Osiris REX mission, so it was originally called nineteen ninety 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.480 nine RQ thirty six, but in advance of the mission 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:51.160 in twenty thirteen, the Planetary Society held a competition to 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.240 name the asteroid, and a kid from North Carolina who 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.560 is nine years old at the time named Mike Pusio 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.640 came up with the idea of naming it Binu, which 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.840 was the name of a pre existing deity from Egyptian mythology, 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.080 an animal formed god, often depicted as a long legged bird, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.480 though there's some dispute over which natural bird, if any, 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.400 it's supposed to correspond to. I'll talk about that a 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.000 bit more in a minute, but Puzio apparently picked the 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:26.640 name for the asteroid because of the Osiris rex probes 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.080 resemblance to a long legged bird and rob if you look, 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.720 I attached an image of the spacecraft here for you 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.520 to have a gander at. I can see this here, 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.360 So the solar panel flaps are very much like wings. 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.840 Yeah, yeah, excellent. I got to hand it to this 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.280 nine year old. This is a great space nerd and 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:53.360 a great mythology nerd. Two great nerdoms for anyone, especially 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:54.640 this at this age. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.080 Now we're getting a little off track of the mission here, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.920 but I actually got interested in the concept of Binu itself, 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.160 and the context of this episode is the Egyptian mythology, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.720 So I wanted to follow this tunnel under the pyramids 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.520 for a moment. So Binu, you can if you're looking 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.440 this up. It's sometimes as the god's name is spelled 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.880 Binu with two ends or Binu with one n so 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.440 b e n u. Sometimes the asteroid is with two ends. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.000 It is a figure associated with the creation of the 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.360 world and with the creator Sun God. And for what 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.320 I'm about to discuss my main sources Geraldine Pinch's Handbook 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:38.400 of Egyptian Mythology. So, according to Pinch, in some Egyptian myths, 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:43.240 Binu is said to be the oldest creature living. During 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:46.360 the creation of the world, when a hill of dry 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.200 land was first raised out of the darkness, out of 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.360 the waters of chaos, the Binu bird landed on this earth, 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.880 so it was the first living animal, and its cry 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:01.400 was the first sound. The moment of its marked the 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.679 first moment of time, and the cry of the Binu 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.679 bird will also sound again at the end of the 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.399 world to mark the time when all order will again 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.840 descend into chaos. The Binu bird seems to have been 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.480 related to, or possibly the inspiration for, the Greek myth 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.399 of the phoenix. In the Egyptian context, there was a 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.560 Binu bird that was believed to dwell in Heliopolis, and 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.639 kings would pray to the bird for the renewal of 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.040 strength after they had been in power for thirty years 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.560 and here, I just want to read a section from 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.000 Pinch on the connection between the Binu bird and Osiris 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.760 as well as another major god from the pantheon. Quote, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.879 both Ray and Osiris could be identified with the Binu bird, 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:51.080 an expression of the secret knowledge that these two gods 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.680 were one. As a manifestation of Osiris, the Binu bird 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.600 led the spirits of the dead through the dangers of 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.040 the underworld. Some spells in the Book of the Dead 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.800 aim to assist the dead to transform themselves into Binu 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.720 birds so that they can travel freely between worlds. 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.119 All right, So a kind of psycho bomb here. 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:16.800 Yeah, I think it's interesting that you would you would 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.240 get both that. So the binu could be a creature 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.520 that's sort of a guide because remember in you know, 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.560 there are different visions of the Egyptian afterlife. But in 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.520 some views of this, you know, it's a it's an adventure. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.640 It's like a journey that you have to go through 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.440 and face obstacles along the way. And there is also 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.800 there's the famous judgment, the weighing of the heart against 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.639 the feather of Mott. But there there are also you know, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.800 these these trials you must go through, like facing facing, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.159 dangers throughout the landscape of the dead, and the Binu 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.720 bird here apparently apparently could be a guide in that process. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.240 But you could also, if you knew the right spells, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.200 just turn into a Binu bird, which seems even better. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.639 Now coming back to whether this bird has a counterpart 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:06.159 in nature, early texts describing the Binu bird seem to 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.600 be talking about a yellow wagtail, which is a small 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.240 bird that eats insects and tends to seek out wet, 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.679 open countries such as marshland. However, Pinch notes that in 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.360 later art the binu bird is depicted somewhat differently as 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.680 a huge heron, and this is why you'll see pictures 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.920 of a heron often if you google binu. This is 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.800 I think more New Kingdom art. And I found a 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.360 photo of some of this art for you to look 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.359 at here, rob In the outline here Binu is a 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:38.919 heron that would have been taller than a human with 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.880 its neck outstretched, so a very big heron and extant 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.280 herons can get quite large. The still living Goliath heron 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.080 or Ardia goliath can reach a height of about five 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.800 feet or roughly one hundred and fifty centimeters, but Apparently 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:58.320 there was an extinct giant heron that grew even larger, 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:04.160 known today as the Binu heron or Arda binuids, bones 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.439 of which have been found from the Arabian Peninsula dating 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.959 back to the third millennium BCE. So this is a 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.520 giant heron that would have been alive during human history 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.480 here and so this isn't known, but it has been 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.840 speculated that this bird could have inspired the iconography of 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.400 Binu and thus also perhaps the story of the Phoenix. 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.240 Fascinating now, how much larger was this like a twenty 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:35.280 foot tall heron? No, it is bigger than any living heron, 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:37.680 but not by a huge amount. I think it would 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:39.720 have been roughly maybe six feet tall. 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.800 Still a big bird, yeah, absolutely, I mean it just 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.159 thevery any kind of heron species you encounter in the wild. 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:50.359 It's it's kind of a breathtaking and magical experience and 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:56.200 imagining like the largest of heron's here, this extinct species, 0:20:56.280 --> 0:21:15.959 this would have been quite an impressive side. 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.280 Now, before we move on from Osiris Rex, there is 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.960 one interesting thing I wanted to talk about from the 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:19.520 sampling portion of the mission. Apparently this asteroid had some 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.080 surprises waiting for us when we got there. So I 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.360 mentioned already that the sampling mechanism how it would work 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:28.639 to get some of the regulars from the surface of 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:33.159 this asteroid. It did not involve a permanent landing, so 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.320 you didn't have to worry about that. It was a 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:38.360 touch and go operation, so you would descend, you would 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:42.520 poke the surface with the sampling arm, issue a blast 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.600 of nitrogen gas, scoop up a bunch of what was 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.600 stirred up, and then blast off and retreat immediately. But 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:55.480 despite this, once we actually reached the asteroid, it proved 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.520 a lot trickier of an object to touch down on 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.080 than was initially expected because it had been thought that 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.359 the surface of Binu would be relatively smooth, or at 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.600 least have large smooth patches. I think the asteroid that 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:13.840 had been targeted by the Japanese Hyabusa probe had more 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.960 kind of beachy areas, you know, with like smooth, fine 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.160 grained areas where you know you could select a good 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.639 landing zone. But for some reason, Binu was when we 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.640 got there, more of a sort of a hell of boulders. 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:31.400 It was a very rocky bouldery surface, more uneven than expected, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.840 so the team had to very carefully map out the 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:37.800 surface to select an ideal landing spot, and there were 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:42.080 not many. They ended up selecting a place that was 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.719 known as the Nightingale Crater. But then there was another 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.840 surprise waiting when they actually went to initiate the touchdown 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:55.399 and sample retrieval moment. So the craft was descending and 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:59.800 it poked the asteroid, and then the sampling arm sank. 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.520 It sank into the surface. I've seen this described as 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.720 like poking into a swamp. Now, of course, it's not 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:12.400 actually that there was liquid water on the surface of Binu. Instead, 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:17.080 it's just that the soil covering its surface was a 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.800 lower density than expected, so the sampling arm just kind 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:25.040 of plunged in. I want to read a quote here 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:29.000 from a space dot com article by Teresa Pultova talking 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:29.800 about this moment. 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:30.879 Quote. 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.880 The descent was smooth, but when Osiris wrex' sample collection 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:39.920 device pressed into the asteroid surface, something unexpected happened. Contrary 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:44.040 to expectations, the surface behaved almost like a swamp. Within 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:48.040 a few seconds, the spacecraft sank nineteen inches or fifty 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:52.679 centimeters deep into Binu as the sample collection had sucked 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.639 in the sample, and the spacecraft's backaway thrusters fired, a 0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:01.080 huge wall of debris rose from the crater, engulfing the 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:05.960 ascending spacecraft and rob I've attached some pictures for you 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:08.320 to look at here, because there's sort of like an 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:13.280 animation you can look up of this of the spacecraft's camera. 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:18.120 It had a camera facing directly down along the axis 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:21.440 of the sampling arm, so you're looking down as it's 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:24.439 descending towards the surface, and you can just see when 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:26.919 it touches suddenly it goes in and then there's this 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:30.840