Details on Large Boulders Near Equator

Details on Large Boulders Near Equator

This image shows a group of large boulders located just north of asteroid Bennu’s equatorial region. Two of the boulders have flat faces that exhibit linear marks. The boulder in the lower right shows evidence of exfoliation, where thermal fracturing likely caused small, thin layers to flake off of the boulder’s surface. The image was taken by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on July 20, from a distance of 0.4 miles (0.7 km). The field of view is 31 ft (9.3 m). For scale, the crack that runs through the rectangular boulder (upper left) is 8.7 ft (2.7 m) long, which is about the length of a dining room table. The image was obtained during the mission’s Orbital B phase. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was just north of the equator, pointing PolyCam nearly straight down.

Date Taken: July 20, 2019

Instrument Used: OCAMS (PolyCam)

Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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