Sun-Lit Boulder in Bennu's Southern Hemisphere

Sun-Lit Boulder in Bennu’s Southern Hemisphere

This image captures a view of a sun-lit boulder located in asteroid Bennu’s southern hemisphere. It was taken at 5:30 pm Local Solar Time, which explains the evening shadowing. The image was obtained by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on July 4, from a distance of 0.4 miles (0.7 km). The field of view is 31 ft (9.3 m). For scale, the large boulder is 24 ft (7.2 m) long. The small, bright rock at the base of the boulder is 1.3 ft (0.4 m) long, which is about the length of a cat. The image was obtained during the mission’s Orbital B phase. When it was taken, the spacecraft was over the southern hemisphere, pointing PolyCam straight down.

Date Taken: July 4, 2019

Instrument Used: OCAMS (PolyCam)

Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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Sun-Lit Boulder in Bennu’s Southern Hemisphere

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