Ket Thiru

Downbeat optimist.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

That picture was taken by a robot the size of a shoebox, sitting on a rock 186 million miles from Earth. The robot worked for 17 hours, then died. It will sit there for the next 40 million years.

The rock is an asteroid called Ryugu. It has been drifting through space since the planets formed. In 2014, Japan launched a spacecraft called Hayabusa2 to go meet it. Inside the spacecraft was a tiny lander called MASCOT, built jointly by the German and French space agencies.

For almost four years, the spacecraft chased the asteroid. When it finally caught up, it lowered itself to about 50 meters above the surface and dropped MASCOT.

The fall took six minutes. Ryugu has almost no gravity. A person standing on it would weigh about as much as a paperclip. So MASCOT drifted down slower than a walking pace, hit a boulder, and bounced eight times before coming to rest.

Then it had a single small battery and a job to do. It carried a camera, a thermometer, a tool that measures magnetic fields, and a small instrument that could figure out what the rocks were made of. It used a tiny metal arm tucked inside its body to throw itself across the surface, hopping a few different times and taking pictures along the way. Scientists later named the area Alice's Wonderland, because the rocks were stranger than anyone had expected.

After 17 hours and 7 minutes, the cold of the asteroid's night drained the battery. MASCOT went silent. Seven years later, it still is.

The rock is made of material older than Earth. In 2020, the spacecraft dropped a sealed capsule of asteroid dust into the Australian desert. When scientists opened it, they found all five of the chemical building blocks of life inside. The same molecules that, given water and a few billion years, eventually built every plant, every animal, every person you have ever met.

That recipe has been out there in the solar system for 4.6 billion years. Our species has been around for about 300,000 of those.

A small machine our species put together is now resting on a piece of the early solar system. Long after every pyramid has crumbled to dust, long after every cathedral has fallen, long after every word written by anyone you have ever known has been forgotten, that little robot will still be there.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@floboflo *mor’e

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@Helen_Fields @NolanDom This potentially new genre is interesting. I’m adding it to my ‘fresh podcasts’ podcast; “Frodcasts”. I’d like you both to come on.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@ItsBrian_Murphy Late to this but lacks structural integrity. Would be a struggle to eat. Would not recommend.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@Simon_Roberts72 @Paul_Lfc4 Toss up between that and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ for me.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@NolanDom @BloodyScotland @AlanJParks @dfr10 Sounds good. But remember the Principles.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@sazzam31 Thought he did really well against Newcastle too. Was composed and quite brave in his play.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@sidlowe Did the guys have to stand the entire flight?

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@Mobyhaque1

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@sidlowe Never had doubts.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@geordiejosh It’s why we paid £150M, he better!

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@shornKOOMINS Hahahahaha

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

@reformparty_uk If really isn’t 🙄

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@davidjmcelroy @NolanDom You can’t spell “margin erosion vs increased volume” without ‘u’ and ‘me’. Or something.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

Are we going to have to buy him too??

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

🚨⚪️⚫️ Understand Newcastle are attentive to Benjamin Šeško situation at RB Leipzig with Isak now keen on exit.

#NUFC informed on Šeško deal costs while working on multiple deals including Wissa from Brentford.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@sazzam31 @Pacmanlfc Membership has its privileges..

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@Biggies_MaIIs £25m for Wissa to work? Never going to happen.

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@ItsBrian_Murphy 😂

[Ket Thiru @Ketthiru]

@ItsBrian_Murphy