NASA scientists revealed the sample collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from near-Earth asteroid Bennu for the first time Wednesday.

A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector, with material from the asteroid Bennu in the middle right. NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold Get the Popular Science daily ...

When OSIRIS-REx returns its asteroid samples to Earth Sept. 24, two University of Arizona researchers will be among the first to examine the precious material.

Checking in with the OSIRIS-REx: Sample Return team and scientists from SPACEWATCH.

The building blocks for life, including salts, organic matter and amino acids have been found in samples returned to Earth from outer space.

The sample, which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu and returned to Earth in 2023, contains all five nucleobases — the "letters" that make up DNA and RNA — alongside ...

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 ...

An electron microscope image shows needle-like sodium carbonate crystals in the asteroid sample, each less than one/10th of the width of a human hair. The needles form a vein that cuts through the ...

Scanning electron microscope images of trona found in samples of the asteroid Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Trona is water-bearing sodium carbonate, also known commonly as soda ...

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

Previously, Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-Rex's principal investigator, said his dream discovery from the Bennu rocks would be evidence of peptides, signaling protein evolution.

NASA scientists revealed the sample collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from near-Earth asteroid Bennu for the first time Wednesday.