Bennu size and scale context

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. Read its scale context, comparisons, and journey links on the canonical object page.

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Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.

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 turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.

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Solar System Planets From Electron to Atoms Stars To Scale Birth And Death Of Stars Black Holes To Scale

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Planets of the Solar System Stars of the Universe Black holes Subatomic scale

Return to Earth hello@scaleofspace.org

Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.

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 turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.

Editorial

Solar System Planets From Electron to Atoms Stars To Scale Birth And Death Of Stars Black Holes To Scale

Views

Planets of the Solar System Stars of the Universe Black holes Subatomic scale

Return to Earth hello@scaleofspace.org

Asteroids

Dimorphos

Dimorphos is the small moonlet of asteroid Didymos and the target struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft. DART shortened its orbit by roughly 33 minutes, making Dimorphos the first celestial body whose motion humans deliberately changed.

Scale fact151 mdiameter

Object class: Rubble-pile asteroid
Mass: ~4 million tonnes
Estimated age: ~4.5 billion years
Host: Didymos system

Asteroids

Bennu

Scale fact490 mmean diameter

Object class: Carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid
Mass: ~73 million tonnes
Estimated age: ~4.5 billion years
Composition: Carbon-rich rock and boulders

Asteroids

Ryugu

Ryugu is a dark carbon-rich asteroid explored by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission. Its pristine returned samples contain amino acids and other organic molecules free from Earth contamination, giving researchers a cleaner look at prebiotic chemistry in the early Solar System.

Scale fact900 mmean diameter

Object class: Carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid
Mass: ~450 million tonnes
Estimated age: ~4.5 billion years
Composition: Carbon-rich rock and boulders