Osiris-REX Arrives at Asteroid Bennu NASA’s ambitious Osiris-REX mission will now survey 101955 Bennu and attempt to return a sample to Earth. Read more… |
![](https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Bennus.jpg)
We’ve started getting good imagery of Bennu from the OCAMS camera suite aboard Osiris-REX over the past month, as the tiny world swells into view. Looking like a 10-sided die straight out of Dungeons and Dragons, Bennu actually shares an uncanny resemblance with asteroid 162173 Ryugu, where the Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa-2 is currently carrying out a similar sample return mission. Bennu rotates once every 4.3 hours, and seems to have at several large boulders clustered in one hemisphere.
![bennu rotation](https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Bennu-rotation_20181102.gif)
A full rotation of Bennu as seen by PolyCam aboard Osiris-REX on November 16th from a range of 85 miles (140 kilometers).
NASA GSFC / University of Arizona
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, December 7 – 15 Check out our observing picks for this week! Read more… |
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SpaceX Launches Orbiting “Sculpture in the Sky” / Comet Update A satellite sculpture achieves orbit, 46P/Wirtanen becomes a naked-eye comet, and Comet C/2018 V1 makes one last good pass. Read more… |
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