Dec 17, 2024 · Bennu is a relatively small asteroid that passes close to Earth about every six years. Bennu was the target of NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx. The spacecraft delivered a sample of Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

Oct 16, 2020 · Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid that hasn’t undergone drastic, composition-altering change, meaning that on and below its deeper-than-pitch-black surface are chemicals and rocks from the birth of the solar system.

Oct 11, 2023 · Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu sample collected in space and brought to Earth by NASA show evidence of high-carbon content and water, which together could indicate the building blocks of life on Earth may be found in the rock.

1 day ago · Material from Asteroid Bennu is revealing that a lost world fostered the building blocks of life…with an unexpected twist. Join experts on Thursday, January 30 at 3:00 p.m. ET as they dive into the recent findings from the asteroid sample NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft brought to Earth in September 2023.

Dec 20, 2024 · Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid that is about one-third of a mile (half a kilometer) wide at its equator. An ancient relic of our solar system’s early days, asteroid Bennu has seen more than 4.5 billion years of history.

2 days ago · For answers, scientists are looking beyond Earth to primitive asteroids like Bennu, the target of NASA’s daring OSIRIS-REx sample return mission. OSIRIS-REx gathered pristine material from Bennu in 2020 and delivered it to Earth in 2023 – revealing a lost world from the dawn of the solar system, with the right conditions to foster the ...

Dec 6, 2018 · On Dec. 3, after traveling billions of kilometers from Earth, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft reached its target, Bennu, and kicked off a nearly two-year, up-close investigation of the asteroid. It will inspect nearly every square inch of this ancient clump of rubble left over from the formation of our solar system.

1 day ago · In 2016, NASA launched OSIRIS-REx, a robotic probe, to Bennu in order to gather clues to the birth of the solar system. Some 4.5 billion years ago, our solar neighborhood started as a cloud of ...

1 day ago · NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft returned 122 grams (4 ounces) of dust and pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, delivering the sample canister to the Utah desert in 2023 before swooping off ...

Aug 11, 2021 · In a study released Wednesday, NASA researchers used precision-tracking data from the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to better understand movements of the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu through the year 2300, significantly reducing uncertainties related...