Crater and Gargoyle Boulder on Asteroid Bennu

Crater and Gargoyle Boulder on Asteroid Bennu

This image shows a region in asteroid Bennu’s northern hemisphere. The frame spans from near the north pole down to the equator. Visible in the image are Bennu’s darkest boulder, called Gargoyle Saxum, (lower left near the horizon) and a crater containing a large, light-colored boulder, called Strix Saxum, adjacent to Gargoyle. The crater is the location of the OSIRIS-REx mission’s backup sample collection site Osprey. The image was taken by the MapCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on April 18, from a distance of 2.3 miles (3.7 km). The field of view is 854 ft (260.3 m). For scale, the crater is 68 ft (20.6 m) wide, which is about the width of eight parking spaces. The image was obtained during Flyby 7A of the mission’s Detailed Survey: Baseball Diamond phase. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was over the northern hemisphere, pointing MapCam south and to the west.

Date Taken: April 18, 2019

Instrument Used: OCAMS (MapCam)

Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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Crater and Gargoyle Boulder on Asteroid Bennu

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