490-meter Asteroid Bennu is special! NASA OSIRIS-REx reveals why

NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft reached one of the Earth's nearest asteroids, named Bennu, in December 2018 after traveling for two years and 101 days and covering over 1.2 billion miles. (NASA)

OSIRIS-REx is the first mission of NASA to explore this primitive remnant from the origins of the solar system. (NASA)

NASA's spacecraft OSIRIS-REx was designed to study the asteroid and its composition and return its rock sample to the Earth. (NASA)

The 490-meter Asteroid Bennu is roughly the height of a skyscraper and it is now the smallest body to be orbited by a spacecraft. (NASA)

Before the spacecraft arrived at the asteroid it was known to have low thermal inertia, a characteristic of fine-grained materials like sand. (NASA)

The prior assumed characteristic was later confirmed by an infrared spectrometer on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. (NASA)

The OSIRIS-REx discovery further led scientists to expect a predominantly smooth surface of Bennu. (NASA)

The first close-up views of Bennu come up with the major surprise for the scientist that revealed an unrelenting rockscape dominated by boulders by combining these images from osiris-rex with its laser altimetry data. (NASA)

The largest boulder on asteroid Bennu has been named Roc Saxum and it measures around 300 feet in length. It is also rich in a type of iron oxide called Magnetite. (NASA)

The tallest boulder on Bennu is called Benben Saxum and is more than 70 feet in height. It is so tall that it was first spotted from Earth. (NASA)

As can be seen, NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has given humanity an amazing tour of the asteroid of Bennu. (NASA)