NASA spoke about the properties of the asteroid Bennu

NASA continues its mission to explore the asteroid Bennu. Recently representatives of the space agency toldthat the OSIRIS-REx probe, which took soil samples and took several photos, might not have taken off from it at all.

According to data from the probe used for computer simulations, scientists identifiedthat the surface of the celestial body turned out to be looser than they expected. Because of this, Bennu was nearly consumed by OSIRIS-REx.

In fact, this is a mountain of loose rubble, poorly bonded to each other. This means that the asteroid has a weak gravity and is often updated.

NASA suggests that soft celestial bodies like Bennu carry more danger to the Earth than solid ones. OSIRIS-REx almost plunged into the asteroid due to weak drag. If the spacecraft had not turned on the engines in time, it would have fallen into the surface of Bennu like a child in a pool of plastic balls, the scientists noted.

The new data allows researchers to better understand the nature of asteroids and make predictions about how they will behave. Also, information about Bennu will be useful in the study of other celestial bodies. A portion of the soil from the asteroid was taken back in 2020, but will be delivered to Earth only by 2023.

In the media, Bennu is called the "doomsday asteroid" because of its huge size (525 meters), obscure nature and proximity to Earth. However, by calculations astronomers, it will approach our planet no earlier than 2135.