Oct 16, 2020 · Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid that hasn’t undergone drastic, composition-altering change, meaning that on and below its deeper-than-pitch-black surface are chemicals and rocks from the birth of the solar system.

Jul 7, 2022 · The OSIRIS-REx team found a surface littered with boulders instead of the smooth, sandy beach they had expected based on observations from Earth- and space-based telescopes. Scientists also discovered that Bennu was spitting particles of rock into space.

On 6 March 2020 the IAU announced the first official names for 12 Bennu surface features, including regiones (broad geographic regions), craters, dorsa (ridges), fossae (grooves or trenches) and saxa (rocks and boulders).

Mar 22, 2019 · The spectral data reveal that Bennu’s surface is rich in hydrated iron-rich clay minerals, and contains magnetite (Fe 3 O 4) — a composition that may have been derived from the weathering...

5 days ago · Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid that is about one-third of a mile (half a kilometer) wide at its equator. An ancient relic of our solar system’s early days, asteroid Bennu has seen more than 4.5 billion years of history.

Measurements from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s approach to and initial survey of Bennu identified spectral features; constrained the shape, rotation period, and mass; characterized the photometric properties; described the global thermal inertia; and revealed the surficial characteristics of the asteroid.

Jul 7, 2022 · Near-Earth asteroid Bennu is a rubble pile of rocks and boulders left over from the formation of the solar system. On October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly …

Oct 8, 2020 · Scientists had expected Bennu’s surface to consist of fine-grained material like a sandy beach, but instead OSIRIS-REx was greeted by a rugged world littered with boulders – the size of cars, the size of houses, the size of football fields. This video explores several interesting features of Bennu.

Abstract Early spectral data from the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission reveal evidence for abundant hydrated minerals on the surface of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in the form of a near-infrared absorption near 2.7 μm and thermal infrared spectral features that are most similar to those of aqueously altered ...

Oct 29, 2024 · Samples of Bennu’s uppermost surface, collected by contact pads, help us to understand how recent impacts and irradiation processes have changed the optical properties of Bennu surface materials measured by remote sensing.