Bennu is classified as a near-Earth asteroid (NEA), whose orbit keeps it within 1.3 astronomical units of the Sun. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the average Earth-Sun distance of 93 million ...

In September 2023, we reported on the conclusion of the first phase of the OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) as its return sample ...

Every six years, an asteroid by the name of Bennu passes by Earth. Bennu is a small, loosely compacted ball of black rocks that formed nearly 4.6 billion years ago. Recently, scientists ...

Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is unusually magnetic ...

With the return of an Asteroid Bennu sample in 2023 as part of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, researchers from the University of Arizona have made significant discoveries toward understanding the ...

Bennu, designated a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid due to its size and Earth-crossing orbit, has a 1-in-1,750 chance of hitting Earth on Sept. 24, 2182. Neither 2024 YR4 nor Bennu are near the ...

A new study suggests Bennu may have formed beyond Saturn’s orbit, carrying materials from the coldest regions of the solar system. Berkeley Lab plans further infrared and X-ray analysis of Bennu ...

Bennu is a fragment of a larger parent body that synthesized ... "Looking for samples is like looking for a needle in a haystack in a field of haystacks, and from orbit you’re just seeing a field," ...

Meanwhile, the Bennu samples revealed comet particles and ... using its lunar transfer orbit. Clearly, if we are going to routinely explore many of the PHA (and even prospect them for asteroid ...