Gravity on the Moon vs. Asteroid Bennu: Animation

On the Moon, gravity is sixteen percent as strong as it is on Earth and more than sixteen thousand times stronger than it is on Bennu. As a result, loose material in the lunar subsurface is packed together more tightly, making the Moon’s surface relatively firm. If a fifty-kilogram mass of solid iron were to hit the Moon traveling at ten centimeters per second, it would sink into the ground by only half a centimeter.

Repeating this experiment at Bennu would yield a dramatically different result. Though the mass would strike the asteroid’s surface with the same force, it would plunge seventeen centimeters before stopping – over thirty times deeper than at the Moon.

Learn more about the surface properties of asteroid Bennu.