near-Earth asteroid
Bennu
A carbon-rich, spinning-top-shaped rubble pile whose samples NASA's OSIRIS-REx brought back to Earth in 2023.
- Distance from Earth today
- 332.4 million km2.222 AU · light: 18 min 29 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 202.0 million km1.350 AU
- As of
- 4 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Diameter
- 0.48 km
- Dimensions
- 0.5047 × 0.4918 × 0.4567 km
- Mass
- 0.0000000733 × 10¹⁸ kg
- Density
- 1,194 kg/m³
- Rotation period
- 4.3 h
- Semi-major axis
- 1.126 AU (168.4 million km)
- Perihelion
- 0.897 AU
- Aphelion
- 1.355 AU
- Orbital period
- 1.19 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.204
- Orbital inclination
- 6.0°
- Last perihelion
- 13 March 2026
- Next perihelion
- 23 May 2027
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 0.003 AU (482,100 km)
- Albedo
- 0.044
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 1999 – LINEAR survey
Description
Bennu is a dark, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid discovered by the LINEAR survey in 1999. NASA's OSIRIS-REx arrived in 2018 and found a spinning-top-shaped rubble pile strewn with boulders, which even throws small pebbles off into space. In 2020 the spacecraft briefly touched the surface and collected material, and the sample capsule landed in Utah in September 2023. Analyses of the sample have revealed water-bearing minerals, salts and organic compounds, including amino acids. Bennu is also tracked closely as a potentially hazardous asteroid with a small chance of hitting Earth in the late 22nd century.