Bennu tagged posts

A bizarre wobbling asteroid revealed by NASA’s Lucy mission is exposing hidden clues about ancient water, cosmic collisions, and the origins of the solar system. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered that asteroid Donaldjohanson is a wobbling, peanut-shaped relic born from a violent collision and slowly reshaped by the subtle force of sunlight...

Using data from NASA OSIRIS-REx mission, scientists concluded that asteroids with highly porous rocks, such as Bennu, should lack fine-grained material on their surfaces.

Scientists thought asteroid Bennu’s surface would be like a sandy beach, abundant in fine sand and pebbles, which would have been perfect for collecting samples.Past telescope observations from Earth’s orbit had suggested the presence of large swaths of fine-grain material called fine regolith that’s smaller than a few centimeters.

But when the spacecraft of NASA’s University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid sa...

This image of Bennu was taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a distance of around 50 miles (80 km).
Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile (2 billion-kilometer) journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft executed a maneuver that transitioned it from flying toward Bennu to operating around the asteroid.

Now, at about 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) from Bennu’s Sun-facing surface, OSIRIS-REx will begin a preliminary survey of the asteroid. The spacecraft will commence flyovers of Bennu’s north pole, equatorial region, and south pole, getting as close as nearly 4 miles (7 kilometers) above Bennu during each flyover.

The prima...