Bennu's basic mineralogy and chemical nature would have been established during the first 10 million years of the Solar System's formation, where the carbonaceous material underwent some geologic heating and chemical transformation inside a much larger planetoid or a proto-planet capable of producing the requisite pressure, heat and hydration ...

Jan 29, 2025 · In this video frame, Jason Dworkin holds up a vial that contains part of the sample from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission in 2023. Dworkin is the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Oct 16, 2020 · Bennu is a primordial artifact preserved in the vacuum of space, orbiting among planets and moons and asteroids and comets. Because it is so old, Bennu could be made of material containing molecules that were present when life first formed on Earth.

Dec 17, 2024 · Bennu is a relatively small asteroid that passes close to Earth about every six years. Bennu was the target of NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx. The spacecraft delivered a sample of Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

Jan 29, 2025 · Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

Dec 20, 2024 · Bennu is a small, near-Earth asteroid that passes relatively close to Earth about every six years. It was the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to collect an asteroid sample and bring it to Earth.

Nov 21, 2024 · Bennu was the target of NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission – OSIRIS-REx. The spacecraft successfully delivered the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

Dec 6, 2018 · How scientists predict Bennu’s whereabouts About a third of a mile, or half a kilometer, wide, Bennu is large enough to reach Earth’s surface; many smaller space objects, in contrast, burn up in our atmosphere.

Jan 29, 2025 · Scientists have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in the samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu.

Jan 29, 2025 · Bennu contains minerals and thousands of organic molecules, including the chemical components that make up DNA.