The results of this first Bennu analysis, NASA says, show that the asteroid has likely experienced multiple water-related episodes before it coalesced into the mess of debris we know today.

The difference is that Bennu’s chemical footprint dates back to the start of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, around 100 million years before Bennu’s parent asteroid formed.

In 2018, the OSIRIS-REx mission arrived at the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to collect pristine samples, untouched by alterations induced by Earth's atmosphere, to be analyzed on Earth.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned samples from asteroid Bennu, which showed discoveries about life and the early solar system. These findings can now provide information into the potential ...

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, the ...