The fragment of the asteroid Bennu, on loan from NASA, won't be on display for visitors, but will give scientists the chance to study an asteroid sample uncontaminated by Earth's atmosphere.

The fragment of the asteroid Bennu, on loan from NASA, won't be on display for visitors, but will give scientists the chance to study an asteroid sample uncontaminated by Earth's atmosphere.

Bennu is classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid,” meaning the object is more than 460 feet (140 meters) wide and could theoretically come within 4.65 million miles of Earth.

The asteroid appeared as a speck of light to the spacecraft’s UA-built PolyCam camera, but Bennu will seem to grow now that OSIRIS-REx has begun the approach phase of the mission.

On Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft will fly by Earth and drop off what is expected to be at least a cupful of rubble it grabbed from the asteroid Bennu, closing out a seven-year quest.

A series of images from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission show the spacecraft approach and touch down on asteroid Bennu’s surface, over 200 million miles away from Earth, to collect a sample on ...

In 2020, it successfully touched down on a near-Earth asteroid called 101955 Bennu, collected a sample, and eventually returned the material to Earth for study.

Because this asteroid will zoom by Earth in 2029, a detailed study of its trajectory will deliver even further restrictions on the fifth force than what Bennu could provide.

Scientists with NASA’s Lucy mission are finally wrapping up the process of refining the data gathered by the spacecraft’s ...

What was the most surprising or unexpected thing that happened as the mission unfolded? There are so many. I call Bennu the “trickster asteroid” because it constantly surprised us and challenged us.

The OSIRIS-APEX mission, a follow-up to OSIRIS-REx, which successfully returned a sample from asteroid Bennu in 2023, has repurposed the spacecraft to visit a new target, asteroid Apophis.