Image Caption 1:
The orbits
around the Sun
of asteroid
101955 Bennu (AKA 1999 RQ36)
and the 4
inner Solar System planets
(i.e., Mercury,
Venus,
Earth,
Mars).
Features:
- Bennu
(named after
ancient Egyptian god Bennu)
is
potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA),
one of the leading ones, given its relatively large size and
probability
of impacting
Earth.
- Bennu
has mean diameter ∼ 0.55 km, and
so could cause continental devastation if it became
an Earth
impactor.
It is estimated have an explosive yield of
1200 megatons of TNT
(see Wikipedia: 101955 Bennu:
Possible Earth impact).
It is believed to be
rubble pile asteroid
with macroporosity 40(10) %
(see Wikipedia: 101955 Bennu:
Physical characteristics).
- Bennu
has cumulative probability
∼ 0.037 % (i.e., ∼ 1/2700 chance)
of impacting Earth in the
late 22nd century,
2175--2196
(see Wikipedia:
101955 Bennu: Possible Earth impact).
- Bennu
is a smaller potential
Earth
impactor
than the other famous
PHA
1950 DA
(0.55 km versus 1.1 km in mean diameter)
but is actually more likely to
hit Earth
(∼ 1/2700 chance versus ∼ 1/8330 chance)---and much
sooner (late 22nd century
versus late 29th century, precisely
2880
Mar16).
Image Caption 2: "This mosaic image of asteroid
Bennu is composed of
12
PolyCam images collected on
2018
Dec02 by
the OSIRIS-REx (2016--2023)
spacecraft
from a range of 15
miles
(24
kilometers).
The image was obtained at a 50°
astronomical phase angle
between the spacecraft
and Sun with
subtended
at the asteroid: so we are seeing
Bennu's
terminator and some
of its nightside
its night side.
Bennu Bennu spans ∼
1,500 pixels in the
PolyCam's
field of view (FOV).
(Slightly edited.)
Images:
- Credit/Permission:
NASA,
JPL,
2016
(uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
by User:Hadron137,
2016) /
Public domain.
Image link: Wikimedia Commons:
File:Bennu Orbit.png.
- Credit/Permission:
NASA,
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC),
University of Arizona,
2018
(uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
by User:,
2018) /
Public domain.
Image link: Wikimedia Commons:
File:BennuAsteroid.jpg
Local file: local link: bennu_orbit.html.
File: Asteroid file:
bennu_orbit.html.