Bennu

Bennu — asteroid, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

A spinning-top rubble pile, mapped to centimeters by OSIRIS-REx before it grabbed a handful of the surface and flew it home. This is the real shape model from that mission.

Diameter
~490 m
Year
1.20 Earth years
Day
4 h 18 m
Visited
OSIRIS-REx — sampled 2020
Sample returned
24 Sep 2023
Note
One of the best-mapped objects in the solar system

Seeing Bennu in real time

Cosmoscope puts Bennu at its true position in the solar system, computed from JPL-derived ephemeris and updated continuously. Open the live 3D view to see, in real time, how far Bennu is from the Sun and from Earth right now, how many minutes or hours light takes to cross that gap, and how fast it is moving along its orbit. Scrub the timeline to place Bennu where it was on any past date, or where it will be years from now.

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Interactive universe
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