Bennu

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has delivered an extraordinary revelation with its sample collection from asteroid Bennu, unveiling a treasure trove of clues about the origins of life. Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old sample have uncovered the presence of carbon and water, suggesting that the fundamental components for life on Earth may also exist within this extraterrestrial rock.Ingredients of life discovered in asteroid Bennu samplesThe OSIRIS-REx mission surpassed expectations by not only meeting but exceeding…

September of 2023 was an exciting month for space exploration when OSIRIS-REx finally returned to Earth, dropping off the samples it had collected from the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. Now, NASA’s first asteroid Bennu analysis has finally been completed, giving us a glimpse into the iconic asteroid (via LiveScience).Bennu has already surprised scientists a number of times throughout OSIRIS-REx’s journey. Not only did the spacecraft collect more samples than NASA expected, but it also helped prove that…

NASA scientists recently conducted a study on asteroid rocks that their spacecraft took from a distant "potentially hazardous"…

A view of eight sample trays containing the final material from asteroid Bennu. The dust and rocks were poured into the trays from the top plate of the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head. 51.2 grams were collected from this pour, bringing the final mass of asteroid sample to 121.6 grams. Credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph AebersoldNASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered an unprecedented 4.29 ounces of asteroid Bennu material to Earth, surpassing its mission goals. Despite initial challenges,…

NASA finally has counted up all the asteroid samples returned by a spacecraft last fall — and it's double the rubble return goal. Officials reported Thursday that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected 121.6 grams (4.29 ounces) of dust and pebbles from asteroid Bennu. That's just over half a cup and the biggest cosmic haul ever from beyond the moon.It took NASA longer than expected to pry open the sample container because of stuck fasteners. The black, carbon-rich samples — the first ever collected from an asteroid by NASA…

It was, Dante…

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…

We finally have the first high-res images of the contents of NASA's precious Bennu asteroid sampler container, more than 3.5 months since the OSIRIS-REx returned them to Earth.The delay is due to two pesky fasteners that were holding the sampler lid in place, and were finally opened on January 10.On January 19, NASA released the long-awaited first images of the sampler's contents – black dust and rocks up to around 1 cm (0.4 inch) in size.Top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM)…

In a very relatable moment, NASA struggled for three months to get the lid off its asteroid sample container, having sent it into deep(ish) space and back. Same, NASA, same: I’ve struggled with jars of pickles.The space agency was finally able to get into the asteroid Bennu sample container last week and published a high-resolution image of its Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) on Friday, revealing a delightful array of dust and rocks, scraped off Bennu by spacecraft OSIRIS-REx.The TAGSAM lives in a…

Who doesn’t love showing off their collection of cool rocks? NASA was last week after struggling with it for a couple of months, and now, it’s sharing a look at what’s inside. The space agency published a high-resolution image of the newly opened Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) on Friday, revealing all the dust and rocks OSIRIS-REx scraped off the asteroid’s surface.The image is massive, so you can zoom in to see even the finer details of the sample. Check out the full-sized version on . There’s an…