Bennu Surprises Scientists with Particle Ejections Captured by OSIRIS-REx
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/UA/Lauretta & Hergenrother et al. Science 10.1126
Soon after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at Bennu and entered orbit, there was an unexpected finding by the science team today, showing that Bennu had particles ejecting from its surface into space. The particles were seen in images taken by the navigation camera on January 6th, 2019. The team initially thought the particles were distant stars behind Bennu, however, with further investigation the team concluded that Bennu was ejecting particles from its surface. The event created an opportunity for the KinetX Optical Navigation team to develop new tools to determine the trajectory of these released particles, which fed into analysis by both navigators and scientists.
