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.
