Universe  ID: 13112

Why Bennu?

Released on December 3, 2018
Download Options
The goal of the OSIRIS-REx mission is to collect a sample from an asteroid and bring it back to Earth. But just how did the OSIRIS-REx team choose Bennu from the over 500,000 known asteroids in the solar system? Watch this cartoon to find out!

Music provided by Killer Tracks: "Cheeky Chappy" - James Patrick Kaleth & Ross Andrew McLean.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

This animated feature takes a fun look at how asteroid Bennu was chosen as the target for the OSIRIS-REx mission. Starting in 2008, from a field of over 500,000 known asteroids, scientists went through a process to narrow the choices down to 5 final candidates. The selection criteria was based on an asteroid’s proximity to Earth, its orbit and size, and its chemical composition.
Bennu is a B-type asteroid with an approximately 500-meter diameter. It completes an orbit around the Sun every 436.604 days (1.2 years) and every 6 years it comes very close to Earth, within 0.002 AU. Bennu’s size, primitive composition, and potentially hazardous orbit make it one of the most fascinating and accessible near-Earth objects, and the ideal target for the OSIRIS-REx mission. For more details, visit the OSIRIS-REx website at asteroidmission.org.
 

Used Elsewhere In

Arrival at Bennu

Related

Bennu Arrival

Credits

David Ladd (USRA): Lead Producer
David Ladd (USRA): Lead Video Editor
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Lead Animator
Bailee DesRocher (USRA): Lead Animator
Michael Lentz (USRA): Art Director
Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Music provided by Killer Tracks


Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13112

Mission:
OSIRIS-REX

Keywords:
SVS >> Asteroid
SVS >> Planetary Science
SVS >> OSIRIS-REx
NASA Science >> Universe
SVS >> Conceptual Image Lab
SVS >> Bennu
SVS >> Animation