The operational environment and rotational acceleration of asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx observations

C W Hergenrother; C K Maleszewski; M C Nolan; J-Y Li; C Y Drouet d'Aubigny; F C Shelly; E S Howell; T R Kareta; M R M Izawa; M A Barucci; E B Bierhaus; H Campins; S R Chesley; B E Clark; E J Christensen; D N DellaGiustina; S Fornasier; D R Golish; C M Hartzell; B Rizk; D J Scheeres; P H Smith; X-D Zou; D S Lauretta; OSIRIS-REx Team

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09213-x

The operational environment and rotational acceleration of asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx observations

Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 19;10(1):1291. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09213-x.

Authors

C W Hergenrother¹, C K Maleszewski², M C Nolan², J-Y Li³, C Y Drouet d'Aubigny², F C Shelly², E S Howell², T R Kareta², M R M Izawa⁴, M A Barucci⁵, E B Bierhaus⁶, H Campins⁷, S R Chesley⁸, B E Clark⁹, E J Christensen², D N DellaGiustina², S Fornasier⁵, D R Golish², C M Hartzell¹⁰, B Rizk², D J Scheeres¹¹, P H Smith², X-D Zou³, D S Lauretta²; OSIRIS-REx Team

Collaborators

OSIRIS-REx Team:
D E Highsmith, J Small, D Vokrouhlický, N E Bowles, E Brown, K L Donaldson Hanna, T Warren, C Brunet, R A Chicoine, S Desjardins, D Gaudreau, T Haltigin, S Millington-Veloza, A Rubi, J Aponte, N Gorius, A Lunsford, B Allen, J Grindlay, D Guevel, D Hoak, J Hong, D L Schrader, J Bayron, O Golubov, P Sánchez, J Stromberg, M Hirabayashi, C M Hartzell, S Oliver, M Rascon, A Harch, J Joseph, S Squyres, D Richardson, J P Emery, L McGraw, R Ghent, R P Binzel, M M Al Asad, C L Johnson, L Philpott, H C M Susorney, E A Cloutis, R D Hanna, H C Connolly Jr, F Ciceri, A R Hildebrand, E-M Ibrahim, L Breitenfeld, T Glotch, A D Rogers, B E Clark, S Ferrone, C A Thomas, H Campins, Y Fernandez, W Chang, A Cheuvront, D Trang, S Tachibana, H Yurimoto, J R Brucato, G Poggiali, M Pajola, E Dotto, E Mazzotta Epifani, M K Crombie, C Lantz, M R M Izawa, J de Leon, J Licandro, J L Rizos Garcia, S Clemett, K Thomas-Keprta, S Van Wal, M Yoshikawa, J Bellerose, S Bhaskaran, C Boyles, S R Chesley, C M Elder, D Farnocchia, A Harbison, B Kennedy, A Knight, N Martinez-Vlasoff, N Mastrodemos, T McElrath, W Owen, R Park, B Rush, L Swanson, Y Takahashi, D Velez, K Yetter, C Thayer, C Adam, P Antreasian, J Bauman, C Bryan, B Carcich, M Corvin, J Geeraert, J Hoffman, J M Leonard, E Lessac-Chenen, A Levine, J McAdams, L McCarthy, D Nelson, B Page, J Pelgrift, E Sahr, K Stakkestad, D Stanbridge, D Wibben, B Williams, K Williams, P Wolff, P Hayne, D Kubitschek, M A Barucci, J D P Deshapriya, S Fornasier, M Fulchignoni, P Hasselmann, F Merlin, A Praet, E B Bierhaus, O Billett, A Boggs, B Buck, S Carlson-Kelly, J Cerna, K Chaffin, E Church, M Coltrin, J Daly, A Deguzman, R Dubisher, D Eckart, D Ellis, P Falkenstern, A Fisher, M E Fisher, P Fleming, K Fortney, S Francis, S Freund, S Gonzales, P Haas, A Hasten, D Hauf, A Hilbert, D Howell, F Jaen, N Jayakody, M Jenkins, K Johnson, M Lefevre, H Ma, C Mario, K Martin, C May, M McGee, B Miller, C Miller, G Miller, A Mirfakhrai, E Muhle, C Norman, R Olds, C Parish, M Ryle, M Schmitzer, P Sherman, M Skeen, M Susak, B Sutter, Q Tran, C Welch, R Witherspoon, J Wood, J Zareski, M Arvizu-Jakubicki, E Asphaug, E Audi, R-L Ballouz, R Bandrowski, K J Becker, T L Becker, S Bendall, C A Bennett, H Bloomenthal, D Blum, W V Boynton, J Brodbeck, K N Burke, M Chojnacki, A Colpo, J Contreras, J Cutts, C Y Drouet d'Aubigny, D Dean, D N DellaGiustina, B Diallo, D Drinnon, K Drozd, H L Enos, R Enos, C Fellows, T Ferro, M R Fisher, G Fitzgibbon, M Fitzgibbon, J Forelli, T Forrester, I Galinsky, R Garcia, A Gardner, D R Golish, N Habib, D Hamara, D Hammond, K Hanley, K Harshman, C W Hergenrother, K Herzog, D Hill, C Hoekenga, S Hooven, E S Howell, E Huettner, A Janakus, J Jones, T R Kareta, J Kidd, K Kingsbury, S S Balram-Knutson, L Koelbel, J Kreiner, D Lambert, D S Lauretta, C Lewin, B Lovelace, M Loveridge, M Lujan, C K Maleszewski, R Malhotra, K Marchese, E McDonough, N Mogk, V Morrison, E Morton, R Munoz, J Nelson, M C Nolan, J Padilla, R Pennington, A Polit, N Ramos, V Reddy, M Riehl, B Rizk, H L Roper, S Salazar, S R Schwartz, S Selznick, N Shultz, P H Smith, S Stewart, S Sutton, T Swindle, Y H Tang, M Westermann, C W V Wolner, D Worden, T Zega, Z Zeszut, A Bjurstrom, L Bloomquist, C Dickinson, E Keates, J Liang, V Nifo, A Taylor, F Teti, M Caplinger, H Bowles, S Carter, S Dickenshied, D Doerres, T Fisher, W Hagee, J Hill, M Miner, D Noss, N Piacentine, M Smith, A Toland, P Wren, M Bernacki, D Pino Munoz, S-I Watanabe, S A Sandford, A Aqueche, B Ashman, M Barker, A Bartels, K Berry, B Bos, R Burns, A Calloway, R Carpenter, N Castro, R Cosentino, J Donaldson, J P Dworkin, J Elsila Cook, C Emr, D Everett, D Fennell, K Fleshman, D Folta, D Gallagher, J Garvin, K Getzandanner, D Glavin, S Hull, K Hyde, H Ido, A Ingegneri, N Jones, P Kaotira, L F Lim, A Liounis, C Lorentson, D Lorenz, J Lyzhoft, E M Mazarico, R Mink, W Moore, M Moreau, S Mullen, J Nagy, G Neumann, J Nuth, D Poland, D C Reuter, L Rhoads, S Rieger, D Rowlands, D Sallitt, A Scroggins, G Shaw, A A Simon, J Swenson, P Vasudeva, M Wasser, R Zellar, J Grossman, G Johnston, M Morris, J Wendel, A Burton, L P Keller, L McNamara, S Messenger, K Nakamura-Messenger, A Nguyen, K Righter, E Queen, K Bellamy, K Dill, S Gardner, M Giuntini, B Key, J Kissell, D Patterson, D Vaughan, B Wright, R W Gaskell, L Le Corre, J-Y Li, J L Molaro, E E Palmer, M A Siegler, P Tricarico, J R Weirich, X-D Zou, T Ireland, K Tait, P Bland, S Anwar, N Bojorquez-Murphy, P R Christensen, C W Haberle, G Mehall, K Rios, I Franchi, B Rozitis, C B Beddingfield, J Marshall, D N Brack, A S French, J W McMahon, D J Scheeres, E R Jawin, T J McCoy, S Russell, M Killgore, W F Bottke, V E Hamilton, H H Kaplan, K J Walsh, J L Bandfield, B C Clark, M Chodas, M Lambert, R A Masterson, M G Daly, J Freemantle, J A Seabrook, O S Barnouin, K Craft, R T Daly, C Ernst, R C Espiritu, M Holdridge, M Jones, A H Nair, L Nguyen, J Peachey, M E Perry, J Plescia, J H Roberts, R Steele, R Turner, J Backer, K Edmundson, J Mapel, M Milazzo, S Sides, C Manzoni, B May, M Delbo', G Libourel, P Michel, A Ryan, F Thuillet, B Marty

Affiliations

¹ Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. [email protected].
² Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
³ Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁴ Institute for Planetary Materials, Okayama University-Misasa, Misasa, Tottori, Japan.
⁵ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Univ. Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Meudon, France.
⁶ Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, CO, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
⁸ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹¹ Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.

Abstract

During its approach to asteroid (101955) Bennu, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft surveyed Bennu's immediate environment, photometric properties, and rotation state. Discovery of a dusty environment, a natural satellite, or unexpected asteroid characteristics would have had consequences for the mission's safety and observation strategy. Here we show that spacecraft observations during this period were highly sensitive to satellites (sub-meter scale) but reveal none, although later navigational images indicate that further investigation is needed. We constrain average dust production in September 2018 from Bennu's surface to an upper limit of 150 g s^-1 averaged over 34 min. Bennu's disk-integrated photometric phase function validates measurements from the pre-encounter astronomical campaign. We demonstrate that Bennu's rotation rate is accelerating continuously at 3.63 ± 0.52 × 10^-6 degrees day^-2, likely due to the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect, with evolutionary implications.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.