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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