101955 Bennu

A view of eight sample trays containing the final material from asteroid Bennu.Photo: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph AebersoldAfter opening up that stubborn sample canister, NASA was finally able to weigh the full amount of asteroid bits snagged by its spacecraft more than three years ago. As it turns out, there is plenty of space rock that made its way to Earth.Denis Villeneuve Had a Blast Building the Dune LegoThe OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered a total of 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from asteroid Bennu,…

After months of frustration, NASA finally got the Bennu asteroid sample container open in January, revealing the large amounts of asteroid scooped up by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Now, a top member of the mission says the distant hunk of space rock may be a planetesimal—a planet’s building block—that once belonged to an ocean world.'More People Need to Know About This History': A Black Astronaut Speaks About Race and SpaceDante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and principal investigator on the…

The aluminum canister containing bits of an ancient space rock has finally been opened, revealing the bulk of the asteroid Bennu sample in all its glory. Alex Winter on His Character in Destroy All Neighbors Earlier this month, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team managed to crack open the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head after developing new tools to deal with two stuck fasteners that stood in the way of the asteroid sample. With the sampler head finally open, NASA revealed the remainder of the unseen…

After months of fidgeting with a canister that contained rocky samples from an ancient asteroid, NASA engineers have finally removed two stubborn fasteners that appeared to be preventing the space agency from collecting the full amount of Bennu’s debris.Would Peter Capaldi Return to Doctor Who?The OSIRIS-REx curation team managed to remove the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head, where the bulk of the asteroid sample is stored, NASA announced in a blog post on Thursday. The team was forced to develop…

New mission, who dis? The spacecraft formerly known as OSIRIS-REx had an impromptu close encounter with the Sun as it follows a newly crafted route to a second asteroid, using one of its solar arrays for shade.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerYou may remember NASA’s diligent spacecraft that snagged a sample from an asteroid and dropped it off in the Utah desert in September 2023. That same spacecraft is on a bonus mission to a different asteroid, but in order to get there, it’ll need to fly 25 million miles closer to…

In September, fragments of a near-Earth asteroid were carefully dropped off in the Utah desert. The space rocks hold clues to the origin of the solar system and can possibly answer crucial questions about how our planet came to be, if only we can get to them first.Google’s AI Isn’t a Gimmick, It’s the Future | AI UnlockedSince it landed on Earth, NASA has been struggling to open the canister containing rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu. The space agency now anticipates that the asteroid sample canister will be…

Inconsistent labels in the OSIRIS-REx landing plans are what caused the out-of-order parachute deployment during the return capsule’s descent to Earth on September 24, NASA stated in a release yesterday.Zillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next House With… AI? | AI UnlockedOSIRIS-REx carried samples of the asteroid Bennu to Earth in late September—an “astrobiologist’s dream,” as Gizmodo previously reported. Bennu is a relic of the solar system’s formation, so scrutiny of its composition will offer hints at the primordial…

The prominent astrophysicist and musician Brian May is co-authoring a three-dimensional atlas of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, an 85-million-ton hunk of rock orbiting the Sun.Inspiration Behind Immortal Longings | io9 InterviewMay is co-authoring the book with Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and the principal investigator of NASA and the university’s OSIRIS-REx mission. May is also part of the mission team.OSIRIS-REx saw a small spacecraft arrive at Bennu in 2018 and extract a sample of…

After landing on an asteroid nearly three years ago to scoop up a sample from its rocky surface, the OSIRIS-REx mission is finally in the homestretch. NASA is preparing for the special delivery of the rocky sample next month and the agency just pulled off the most realistic rehearsal for the big day.Inspiration Behind Immortal Longings | io9 InterviewFrom July 18 to 20, the team behind the mission practiced the recovery of a mock sample return capsule at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, the same…

In October 2020, engineers landed a spacecraft on an asteroid 200 million miles (320 million km) from Earth and collected a rocky sample from its surface. But that wasn’t even the hardest part. Now the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way back to Earth to drop off that sample, with NASA rehearsingthe smoothest way to catch it without ruining the whole mission.The spacecraft has spent seven years in space and is now gearing up for its final, yet most challenging, task. OSIRIS-REx is on schedule to drop off a sample from…