NASA ties Bennu’s fast heat loss to hidden cracks in returned boulder samples
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OSIRIS-REx found asteroid Bennu in 2018 almost entirely covered in large boulders, not the smooth regolith needed for sampling, while 2007 Spitzer data had shown rapid surface cooling typical of low thermal inertia. Returned samples analyzed under Andrew Ryan at the University of Arizona show the rocks contain hidden cracks, explaining why heat escapes quickly despite the boulder-dominated terrain.
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