NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission was planned decades ago. In 2016, a spacecraft launched. In 2018, it arrived at Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid as wide as the Sears Tower is tall.

World’s Fastest Electron Microscope, Quantum Consciousness and the Origin of Life Host Erika Hamden explores quantum mysteries. We visit a University of Arizona lab where the world’s fastest ...

Similar to how researchers gained valuable data just from the Hayabusa2 collection process, atmospheric scientists didn't even need to open the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule to learn something new.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission traveled to the carbon-rich asteroid Bennu and sent home a small capsule containing a sample in September 2023.

During Wednesday’s news conference, he showed off an electron microscope image of a dust grain speckled with bits of organic material that glowed like stars under ultraviolet light.

A sample of asteroid dirt brought back to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission contains amino acids and the nucleobases of RNA and DNA, plus brines that could have facilitated the formation of organic ...

A view of the OSIRIS-REx sample canister, containing material from asteroid Bennu, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

An unexpected discovery Before returning the samples, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spent over two years making observations around Bennu.

After launching in 2016, OSIRIS-REx reached Bennu in 2020, gathered up 121.6 grams (4.3 oz.) of material—about the weight of a bar of soap—and carried it back to Earth, where it parachuted ...

This combination of rock, water and organics is one reason OSIRIS-REx chose to sample the organic-rich asteroid Bennu, where water and organic compounds essential to the origin of life could be found.

Scientists have finally had a close look at the rubble collected by a spacecraft from the asteroid Bennu. Here's what they found inside and what it could tell us about the origin of life on Earth.

NASA scientists found amino acids, key minerals, and nucleobases for DNA in samples from the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission. It's a win for alien life.