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Loading contentA near-Earth asteroid sampled by NASA's OSIRIS-REx.
asteroid:bennuDataset membership
Open data
In the graph export: graph.json · graph.jsonld
Planned API: GET /api/v0/entities/asteroid:bennu
Scientific entity. See the evidence framework and authority dashboard.
Real, source-backed references — primary papers first, then datasets and institutional sources. Formatted through the citation engine; nothing is fabricated.
NASA JPL (Caltech)
NASA JPL (Caltech) (n.d.). 101955 Bennu — JPL Small-Body Database. NASA JPL (Caltech). https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html
@misc{cite:jpl-asteroid-bennu,
title = {101955 Bennu — JPL Small-Body Database},
organization = {NASA JPL (Caltech)},
year = {n.d.},
url = {https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html},
note = {Orbit and physical data for 101955 Bennu.}
}NASA
NASA (n.d.). 101955 Bennu — NASA Science. NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/
@misc{cite:nasa-asteroid-bennu,
title = {101955 Bennu — NASA Science},
organization = {NASA},
year = {n.d.},
url = {https://science.nasa.gov/},
note = {NASA overview of 101955 Bennu.}
}How 101955 Bennu connects across Asteria Star — scientific, cultural, and astrological links are kept separate.
The Sun and the bodies gravitationally bound to it.
OSIRIS-REx collected a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and returned it to Earth in 2023.
The largest class of near-Earth asteroids — Earth-crossers with orbits mostly larger than Earth's, named after 1862 Apollo.
121.6 grams of dust and rock from the carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu, returned by OSIRIS-REx in 2023 — the largest asteroid sample yet returned. Early analysis shows abundant carbon and water-bearing clay minerals.
Within months of each other, Japan's Hayabusa2 delivers samples of asteroid Ryugu to Earth and NASA's OSIRIS-REx collects a sample from asteroid Bennu, opening a new age of asteroid sample return.
Mining and extracting water and volatiles — from the permanently-shadowed craters at the lunar poles and from water-bearing carbonaceous asteroids such as Bennu. Water is the keystone resource: it provides drinking water, breathable oxygen, radiation shielding, and rocket propellant.
Determining what an object is — its size, shape, spin, and composition — from light curves, radar, spectra, and, for a few, spacecraft visits. Hera is en route to survey the asteroid DART struck, to learn how a deflection actually worked.
A spacecraft that hovers near an asteroid for years, its own tiny gravity slowly towing the asteroid onto a new path. Very slow, but precise and controllable — best used with decades of warning, and often after a kinetic impact to fine-tune the result.
Detonating a nuclear device near an asteroid — not to blow it apart, but to vaporise a layer of its surface, the escaping material shoving it onto a new course. Studied only as a last resort for the largest objects or the shortest warning times; it has never been tested and remains theoretical.
A large, dark asteroid in the outer main belt.
The first Mars-crossing asteroid discovered — its orbit crosses that of Mars.
The largest stony (S-type) asteroid and the parent of the Eunomia family in the intermediate main belt.
The namesake of the Hilda group, whose members orbit in a 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter in the outer main belt.
A metal-rich main-belt asteroid and NASA mission target.
One of the most elongated known asteroids, a near-Earth Apollo object well characterised by radar.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.