NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has finally entered asteroid Bennu’s orbit, after more than two years of hurtling through space toward the rock.

Bennu's size and orbit. Bennu is 1,614 feet (492 m) wide and has a fairly regular shape that looks a bit like a spinning top. The asteroid completes one orbit around the sun every 435 Earth days ...

The near-Earth asteroid Bennu has been in an orbit that brings it near to Earth for 1.75 million years, based on a study of craters on the asteroid’s surface.

Pinpointing an asteroid. Ever since Bennu’s discovery in September 1999, astronomers have carefully tracked the asteroid’s orbit with ground-based telescopes, including Puerto Rico’s iconic ...

The asteroid Bennu, as imaged by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The asteroid circles the sun at an average distance of 105 million miles, taking 1.2 years to complete one orbit while rotating on its ...

Bennu has an orbit that intersects with Earth’s own orbital path, so a return trip is less fuel-intensive than it might be from other asteroids within our reach.

The OSIRIS-REx team discovered evidence that Bennu likely originated well beyond the orbit of Saturn, before becoming a NEO (Near Earth Object) which would cause certain materials to evaporate ...

Bennu is classified as a near-Earth asteroid (NEA), whose orbit keeps it within 1.3 astronomical units of the Sun. (One astronomical unit, or AU, ...

One proposed way of examining if such a force could exist is by closely monitoring asteroid trajectories, and few near-Earth ...

But is it going to hit? And why does September 24, 2182 keep getting mentioned?. First of all, Bennu was largely chosen for a visit by NASA's OSIRIS-REx due to the excellent radar data and ...

Asteroid Bennu is a primordial goldmine of secrets. A relic from our early solar system, it may hold molecular precursors to the origin of life. Bennu's orbit takes it close to the Earth every six ...

The spacecraft had a tough assignment: It was launched in 2016 for a seven-year voyage to rendezvous with Bennu, orbit the asteroid, collect a sample from its surface and return home.