According to NASA, “this is the highest resolution at which a planetary body has been globally mapped.” So while we’ve definitely seen closer up image of Mars and the Moon, that’s only been within a narrow field of view seen by a rover other type of lander — any orbiting craft can’t capture detail that close up.

We already know lots of other things about Bennu, including the fact that it’s spewing particles into space — behavior that’s common for a comet, but rare for an asteroid. Scientists also discovered that it’s surprisingly rugged, as is clear by the number of boulders strewn on its surface. They also found the presence of magnetite, indicating that it likely interacted with water on Bennu’s parent body.

NASA and its partners didn’t just make the image to have a cool screensaver, though. OSIRIS-REx’s mission is far from over, and it’s actually scheduled to land on the asteroid in August 2020. To that end, the team used the image to choose the landing site (codenamed Nightingale) in a large crater on the northern section of the asteroid.

That mission will be a barn-burner, as REx will slowly approach Bennu and gently kiss it, firing a burst of nitrogen to blow away particles that will be collected in the sampler head of its robotic arm. If all goes well, the spacecraft will return to Earth with the sample on September 24th, 2023. Hopefully, that will be the closest the Bennu ever comes to Earth.