The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. CitationHamilton, V.E., et al., "Evidence for widespread hydrated minerals on asteroid (101955) Bennu." Nature astronomy 3, 4 (2019): p.

[1] The mosaicking of global planetary data sets allows for the examination of local, regional, and global scale processes on all planetary bodies. Processing techniques that allow us and other users to crate mosaics of tens of thousands of images are documented along with the associated errors introduced by each image-processing algorithm. These techniques (e.g., non-uniformity correction, running contrast stretches, line and row correlated noise removal, and random noise removal) were originally developed for the 2001 Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) infrared multispectral imager data but can be adapted and applied to other data sets by the alteration of input parameters. The techniques for mosaicking planetary image data sets (e.g., image registration, blending, and normalization) are also presented along with the generation of qualitative and quantitative products. These techniques are then applied to generate THEMIS daytime and nighttime infrared, Viking, Context Imager (CTX), and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) visible mosaics using a variety of input and output types at a variety of scales. By creating mosaics of the same area using different data sets such as those that illustrate compositional diversity, thermophysical properties, or small-scale morphology, it is possible to view the surface of the planet and geologic problems through many different perspectives. In addition to the techniques used to create large-scale seamless mosaics, we also present the THEMIS daytime and nighttime relative temperature global mosaics, which are the highest resolution (100m/pixel) global scale data sets available for Mars to date.

Christensen, P. R.; Drouet d'Aubigny, C. Y.; Hamilton, V. E.; Reuter, D. C.; Rizk, B.; Simon, A. A.; Asphaug, E.; Bandfield, J. L.; Barnouin, O. S.; Barucci, M. A.; Bierhaus, E. B.; Binzel, R. P.; Bottke, W. F.; Bowles, N. E.; Campins, H.; Clark, B. C.; Clark, B. E.; Connolly, H. C.; Daly, M. G.; Leon, J. de; Delbo', M.; Deshapriya, J. D. P.; Elder, C. M.; Fornasier, S.; Hergenrother, C. W.; Howell, E. S.; Jawin, E. R.; Kaplan, H. H.; Kareta, T. R.; Le Corre, L.; Li, J.-Y.; Licandro, J.; Lim, L. F.; Michel, P.; Molaro, J.; Nolan, M. C.; Pajola, M.; Popescu, M.; Garcia, J. L. Rizos; Ryan, A.; Schwartz, S. R.; Shultz, N.; Siegler, M. A.; Smith, P. H.; Tatsumi, E.; Thomas, C. A.; Walsh, K. J.; Wolner, C. W. V.; Zou, X.-D. and Lauretta, D. S. (2019). Properties of rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx imaging and thermal analysis. Nature Astronomy, 3 pp. 341-351. For guidance on citations see FAQs.Length of main text: 2956 words Length of methods: 3605 words Length of legends: 565 words Number of references: 53 main text, 69 including methods and supplementary information (refs 67 to 69 are cited in the SI only) , we show that asteroid (101955) Bennu's surface is globally rough, dense with boulders and low in albedo. The number of boulders is surprising given Bennu's moderate thermal inertia, suggesting that simple models linking thermal inertia to particle size do not adequately capture the complexity relating these properties. At the same time, we find evidence for a wide range of particle sizes with distinct albedo characteristics. Our findings imply that ages of Bennu's surface particles span from the disruption of the asteroid's parent body (boulders) to recent in situ production (micron-scale particles).

The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs The dynamic geophysical environment of (101955) Bennu based on OSIRIS-REx measurements