When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018, its close-up images confirmed what mission planners had predicted nearly two decades before: Bennu is made of loose material weakly clumped together by gravity, and shaped like a spinning top. This major validation, however, was accompanied by a major surprise. Scientists had expected Bennu’s surface to consist of fine-grained material like a sandy beach, but were instead greeted by a rugged world littered with boulders – the size of cars, the size of houses, the size of football fields. Now, thanks to laser altimetry data and high-resolution imagery from OSIRIS-REx, we can take a tour of Bennu’s remarkable terrain.
Unlock the secrets of asteroid Bennu: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2002/osiris-rex-unlocks-more-secrets-from-asteroid-bennu
Universal Production Music: “Timelapse Clouds” by Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra; “The Wilderness” by Benjamin James Parsons; “Maps of Deception” by Idriss-El-Mehdi Bennani, Olivier Louis Perrot, and Philippe Andre Vandenhende
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Data provided by NASA/University of Arizona/CSA/York University/Open University/MDA
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer
Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Jonathan North (USRA): Animator
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Animator
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Narrator
Erin Morton (The University of Arizona): Support
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Support
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Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos landed safely on Earth near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Oct. 22 after bidding farewell to their colleagues on the complex and undocking their Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft from the Poisk module on the International Space Station. Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner completed a journey of 196 days in space conducting research and maintenance aboard the orbital outpost…