Key facts
- Category
- Asteroids
- Object class
- Carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid
- Mass
- ~73 million metric tons
- Scale fact
- 565 mmaximum extent
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Carbon-rich rock and boulders
101955 Bennu
565 mmaximum extent
Visual creditOSIRIS-REx 2020 / NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons
Details
Bennu is a carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid explored by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Returned samples contain carbon-rich material, water-related minerals, and unexpected phosphates, hinting that Bennu’s parent body may once have been part of a small primitive ocean world.
OSIRIS-REx delivered 121.6 grams of Bennu's rocks and dust to Earth without the uncontrolled atmospheric exposure that alters meteorites. Laboratory analyses can therefore connect individual minerals and organic compounds to a known asteroid and collection site.
The samples contain hydrated minerals, salts left by ancient brines, amino acids, and all five nucleobases used by terrestrial DNA and RNA. None of this is evidence of life on Bennu. It records water-driven chemistry in the larger parent body from which the present rubble-pile asteroid formed.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- 101955 Bennu on Wikipedia
- Universe journey
- Asteroid belt & Jupiter
Size neighbors
Objects near 101955 Bennu on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, 101955 Bennu falls between 25143 Itokawa and 65803 Didymos. The band uses nearby Carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid records.
Shared physical scale
768m
Sources
References for 101955 Bennu
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- 101955 Bennu — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (OSIRIS-REx 2020 / NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona, Public domain)
Continue with nearby objects or open the full scale.
About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.