NASA scientists have begun analyzing a sample from asteroid Bennu, revealing complex organic molecules. The asteroid returned to Earth in Utah's west desert in September 2023.

Osiris-Rex launched in September 2016 and reached Bennu in 2018, then spent nearly two years orbiting the asteroid before venturing close enough to sink its robot arm into the loose surface on Oct ...

And indeed, in a separate analysis of the Bennu sample, other colleagues on the OSIRIS-REx mission identified a wide variety ...

NASA said the spacecraft successfully collected a sample of rocks and dust from the asteroid’s surface in 2020, before ...

But then the team split over which landing site offered the best ... No expense was spared in transporting the precious asteroid cargo to Houston. At the Utah Test and Training Range, workers prepare ...

Bennu passes near Earth every six years and has had three close encounters with Earth in 1999, 2005, and 2011, experts said in the ScienceDirect study.. There is a 1 in 2,700, or 0.037% chance ...

An Asteroid Sample Just Changed What We Know About Life in Our ... a 4.3-ounce Bennu sample—perfectly preserved within OSIRIS-REx’s nitrogen-filled glovebox—crash-landed in the Utah desert.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday ...

The deserts of Utah are notorious for supposed alien visitations, but a real extraterrestrial emissary that parachuted to a soft landing there in September 2023 is proving more impactful. Onboard ...

In September 2023, a capsule containing the pristine sample from Bennu returned to Earth, landing in the Utah desert in the United States. Keegan Barber/NASA Ongoing investigations ...