The near-Earth asteroid Bennu continues to reveal its secrets to NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which has been orbiting the space rock for nearly two years. New research reveals veins of carbonite materials in Bennu’s boulders, as well as signs of organic minerals widespread across its surface. The variety of rock compositions on the asteroid’s surface, the gravity of the asteroid and the unbalanced, diamond-shaped structure of the asteroid’s body suggest that Bennu formed after the collision of two parent asteroids.
OSIRIS-REx arrived at Bennu on 3 December 2018 and has been studying it ever since
©NASA
The new results provide a baseline for the samples that OSIRIS-REx will collect from Bennu’s surface. The spacecraft is expected to bring those samples back to Earth in 2023 - if all goes according to plan - and will reveal not only insight about the asteroids that pass near our planet, but also a glimpse of the first 10 million years after the Sun’s formation.