Morning Shadows in Bennu's Equatorial Region

Morning Shadows in Bennu’s Equatorial Region

This image shows a common occurrence on asteroid Bennu — a smaller rock situated on top of a large boulder. The image was taken at 6:15 a.m. Local Solar Time, and the long morning shadow cast by the small rock can be seen on the boulder’s surface. The image was taken by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on July 25, from a distance of 0.4 miles (0.7 km). The field of view is 31 ft (9.4 m). For scale, the rock situated on top of the boulder (center) is 2.6 ft (0.8 m) long, which is about the size of human toddler. The image was obtained during the mission’s Orbital B phase. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was just south of the equator, pointing PolyCam straight down.

Date Taken: July 25, 2019

Instrument Used: OCAMS (PolyCam)

Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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Morning Shadows in Bennu’s Equatorial Region

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