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Questions tagged [bennu]

101955 Bennu (provisional designation 1999 RQ36) is a carbonaceous asteroid in the Apollo group discovered by the LINEAR Project on 11 September 1999. Bennu was the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission which is intended to return its samples to Earth in 2023 for further study. It is a potentially hazardous object that is listed on the Sentry Risk Table. (from Wikipedia)

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Gravitational force of asteroid Bennu

How can the gravitational force of Bennu (being so weak) hold the spacecraft in orbit?
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What would be the required equipment for an astronaut to dig to the centre of Bennu?

Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona The image above is part of a close-up acquired by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft of Bennu's surface. 101955 Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid that is currently ...
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Will mining water on Bennu for travelling to Mars not be more economical than mining it at the lunar south pole?

Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid that is currently accompanied by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that will take samples from it to return to Earth. Its diameter is 490 m. and it is slightly denser than ...
Cornelis's user avatar
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How did Osiris-Rex enter orbit around asteroid Bennu?

Bennu became the smallest and probably least massive celestial body orbited by a probe. Its surface gravity is 6 micro-g (= 6 millionths the gravity of Earth) according to Wikipedia. How did a probe ...
LoveForChrist's user avatar
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1 answer
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Are the estimated chances of Bennu hitting Earth in the next 200 years still about "1 in 1410" now that OSIRIS REx has scanned it?

This 2016 answer to Does Bennu pose a risk to Earth? And how can OSIRIS-REx's mission save us? says: Does Bennu pose a risk to Earth?: recent calculations produced a cumulative probability of 1 in ...
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Could ejecta from asteroid Bennu enter into temporary orbit around it? If so, how?

The New York Times article The Asteroid Was Shooting Rocks Into Space. ‘Were We Safe in Orbit?’ mentions concerns about material ejected from the Bennu entering temporary orbit around the asteroid ...
uhoh's user avatar
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How exactly will OSIRIS-REx's Navcam be used to navigate?

This remarkable, tweeted OSIRIS-REx image is described in AsteroidMission.org's NavCam Image of Earth, the Moon, and Bennu The particular camera is called a NavCam, and yet it will be used during the ...
uhoh's user avatar
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How low does OSIRIS REx's record-setting orbiting around Bennu go?

This OSIRISREx tweet says: It's official! I'm in orbit around #asteroid Bennu -- now the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft. My snug path around the asteroid also sets a new record for the ...
uhoh's user avatar
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