Bennu’s Cracked Boulders Explain Its Surprising Heat Loss
NASA researchers analyzing Bennu’s surface samples found the boulders are porous and riddled with extensive crack networks. XCT scans and lab thermography show cracks significantly influence heat transfer. When scaled up to boulder size, these findings explain Bennu’s observed thermal inertia and resolve the mismatch between telescope data and in-situ measurements, grounding asteroid interpretations in the actual samples.