Rock in the Shadows

This image shows a portion of a large boulder located in asteroid Bennu’s southern hemisphere. It was captured at 6:30 am Local Solar Time, so the shadows are long and cast to the left. The top of a smaller rock that sits in a depression on the boulder’s lower right side is visible above the shadows. The image was taken by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on July 24, from a distance of 0.4 miles (0.7 km). The field of view is 32 ft (9.6 m). For scale, the small, bright rock just above the shadow (right center) is 6 inches (0.14 m) long, which is about the size of a dill pickle. The image was obtained during the mission’s Orbital B phase. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was over the southern hemisphere, pointing PolyCam straight down.

Date Taken: July 24, 2019

Instrument Used: OCAMS (PolyCam)

Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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Rock in the Shadows

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