Overview
- NASA released X-ray computed tomography images on March 17 that provide the first detailed internal views of Bennu sample fragments.
- The scans display common crack networks and internal porosity in the asteroid’s boulders, a structure that helps explain rapid heating and cooling.
- The results reconcile Spitzer’s 2007 low thermal inertia measurement with OSIRIS-REx’s 2018 observation of a boulder-dominated surface.
- At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, researchers preserved samples in a nitrogen environment and generated nondestructive 3D internal models via XCT.
- Heat-flow modeling based on the XCT data reproduced the spacecraft’s thermal readings, identifying extensive cracking as the missing mechanism.