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If you follow the news of space, you may have heard of "Bennu", the near-Earth asteroid that has a tiny chance (but bigger than most others) to collide with our planet in about 200 years. The asteroid is remarkable for many reasons, including the recent discovery that it is also "active", which means that it spits dust and gravel into the surrounding space all along its course.
This discovery is what prompted NASA to reduce the distance where his OSIRIS-REx probe revolves around the space rock. The probe arrived at Bennu at the end of last year to observe the asteroid after a selection process determined which of those known near Earth would be the best candidate for a mission to research.
The NASA spacecraft is now just over 3,000 feet above Bennu's central mass, which is closer than the average for your military attack helicopters flying a cruising distance over Earth.
The mission has described this orbit as "Orbital B" and is a record not only for Bennu, but also as the closure of a spacecraft has always orbited an extraterrestrial body, wherever it is in the solar system. It will remain in this orbit until mid-August and will focus in the coming weeks on the regular photograph of the surface of the asteroid to study the ejection of dust and gravel mentioned above.
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