Saturday, March 28, 2026

Bennu’s Rugged Rocks Explained by Deep Internal Cracks

Study co-author and NASA X-ray scientist, Dr. Scott Eckley, seen loading a Bennu sample into an X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) machine that was used for the study. (Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz)

Asteroids don’t get the love they deserve. They don’t get “cool points” because they’re not a planet or a potential life-harboring moon. They’re “just a bunch of rocks”. But asteroids are so much more, as they are time capsules of the early solar system that have survived billions of years untouched by weathering or plate tectonics. One of the most intriguing asteroids that has been explored is asteroid Bennu, and specifically how its physical characteristics greater differed from Earth-based observations in 2007 after NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft visited Bennu in 2018.



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