NASA captures closest-ever photo of massive asteroid Bennu flying near Earth

A US spacecraft has captured its closest and most detailed image yet of the 78 billion kilogram asteroid Bennu which gets closer to Earth every six years.

It is the second time NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft managed to orbit around the asteroid, snapping a shot at a distance of 0.4 miles (0.6km) from the asteroid's surface.

Researchers behind OSIRIS-REx observing Bennu said the view is the closest orbit a spacecraft has ever made around a small planetary body in our solar system.

It means it has broken its own record set late in December in which it came as close as 0.8 miles (1.3km).

The latest image was captured by the agency's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on 13 June.

It shows half of the rock lit up by sunlight while the other half sits in the shadows.

It is also possible to see Bennu's largest boulder protruding from the southern hemisphere.

OSIRIS-REx - which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security - Regolith Explorer - arrived at Bennu on 3 December, after it launched from Earth in September 2016.

Asteroids orbit the sun but are much smaller than planets and are among the oldest objects in the solar system which have the potential provide answers as to how the Earth evolved.

Bennu was originally part of a much larger asteroid which broke away from around 700 million to two billion years ago, scientists believe.