The asteroid Bennu is orbiting the sun more than 200 million miles from the Earth. Bennu completes one rotation in only four hours, and it's getting faster.

The OSIRIS-REx space probe has been orbiting Bennu since 2018. During that time the asteroid has been mapped and its surface, topography, and atmosphere have been receiving constant study. 

NASA has learned a lot about Bennu in the last two years. The use of new high-tech optical imaging has been helpful. Then last month, NASA’s spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx landed on the surface of Bennu to collect alien dust samples. These samples are headed back to Earth and are expected in 2023.

In the meantime, Bennu has already become the most-studied asteroid of all time.

OSIRIS-REx team releases the first study of asteroid Bennu

The initial study was published  Sunday in the journal of Science Advances. The research was led by the University of Colorado Boulder’s OSIRIS-REx team. The team of researchers includes professors Daniel Scheeres and Jay McMahon. The findings provided insight into the evolution of asteroids in our solar system.

Dr. Scheeres, a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences was the project leader.

Colorado-based Lockheed Martin, built the Osirus-Rex spacecraft to accommodate NASA scientists and engineers' goal of learning more about asteroids. They extensively analyze images during the landing process with the terrain relative navigation (TRN). 

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft mapped and studied the asteroid's surface, topography, and other conditions.  With NASA’s optical in order to collect samples and get up-close photographs of the rocky landscape.

Bennu study has surprises

The study showed some surprising results. The team believes that the asteroid Bennu may be hollow.  The asteroid’s core seems to be much weaker than its exterior. The asteroid is moving through orbit extremely fast. With the fragility of a hollow planet, Bennu could literally spin itself to pieces.

"We were hoping to find out what happened to this asteroid over time, which can give us better insight into how all of these small asteroids are changing over millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions of years," Dr. Scheeres said. "Our findings exceeded our expectations."

“You could imagine maybe in a million years or less the whole thing flying apart,” said Scheeres, a distinguished professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

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