In October 2020, OSIRIS-REx landed on near-Earth asteroid Bennu and snagged a sample from its surface. Scientists expected to find extra bits of the asteroid in the canister outside the TAGSAM, an ...

Scientists have taken their first glimpse of a sample collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu — and stumbled upon a good bit more than they expected. When they opened the canister ...

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 ...

Late last year, a spacecraft containing samples of 4.6-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu landed safely in the desert after a 1.2-billion mile journey. There was only one little problem: NASA couldn ...

The sample is nearly 5% carbon by weight, making it one of the highest concentrations of carbon to be studied in an asteroid, according to Dr. Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA ...

The remaining asteroid material includes dust and rocks up to about 0.4 inch (one cm) in size, the space agency said, adding that the sample’s final mass will be determined in the coming weeks.

NASA's first asteroid sample is the most pristine sample of its kind. Now, back on Earth, the sample from asteroid Bennu has already delivered surprising findings about the early solar system and ...

"Asteroid Bennu may be a fragment of an ancient ocean world. That's still highly speculative. But it's the best lead I have right now to explain the origin of that material," Lauretta said.

Combined with the samples already collected, OSIRIS-REx returned a total of 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from asteroid Bennu — that's more than double the mission's goal and the largest ...

SEE THE ASTEROID SAMPLE A NASA SPACECRAFT TOOK 7 YEARS TO BRING BACK TO EARTH Scientists with NASA's OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Team published their early findings on the Bennu sample.