In 2016, NASA embarked on a new and unique mission: sending the Osiris-REx spacecraft to rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu to study the rocky space object and collect samples to return to ...

The spacecraft reached Bennu in 2018 after traveling 320 million kilometers from Earth. It spent two years mapping its surface, then collected a 120g sample before landing back on Earth in 2023.

OSIRIS-REx found that Bennu’s surface was far rougher than thought, and mission controllers spent years finding a spot on Bennu’s where the spacecraft could quickly touchdown and gather samples.

OSIRIS-REx later arrived at the asteroid in late December 2018 after surveying for a few years the spacecraft prepared to descend to Bennu's surface. After collecting samples in October 2020 ...

cold temperature and decreased precipitation at the surface." Senior author of the study Axel Timmermann said: "The likelihood that a Bennu-sized asteroid will strike Earth is quite small at 0.037 ...

Scientists have confirmed the presence of organic molecules on the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, opening the door to the possibility that life on Earth arose from cosmic origins.

Bennu’s rocks formed 4.5 billion years ago on a larger parent asteroid. That asteroid was wet and muddy. Under the surface, pockets of water perhaps only a few feet across were evaporating ...

They calculated that there is a very small chance — about 1-in-2700, or 0.037% to be exact — that asteroid Bennu, which is roughly the size of the Empire State Building, could collide with our ...

If you were able to instantly (and safely) transport Bennu from space to the surface of Earth, it would collapse into a giant heap. Thus, Bennu is often referred to as a 'rubble pile' asteroid.

Bennu’s potential collision with Earth is a remote but unsettling possibility, according to a new study. Bennu is about 500 metres wide—taller than the Empire State Building and as wide as ...