Astronomers find white dwarf stars to be useful in determining the age groups of neighboring stars as the former's predictable lifecycle allows them to be used as cosmic clocks.
Aside from this, the fact that NASA's OSIRIS-REx is orbiting around Bennu at only just over a mile (1.6 kilometers) makes its close orbital distance record-breaking.
Mission operations manager Alice Bowman confirmed that their spacecraft is "healthy" and has succeeded in zooming past the primordial planetary body intact.
"Always good to know NASA has your back," Tweeted RDJ, quoting the space agency's Tweet from last week. NASA responded again, saying "Failure is not an option".