Media Coverage

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History put on public display for the first time a sample from Bennu, the carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid brought back to Earth by the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission. Additional material from Bennu will go on display later this month at the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum in the historic Pima County Courthouse.

"For the first time we will be able to measure the abundances of all 20 protein-forming amino acids from an asteroid sample untouched by life on Earth," said Sawsan Wehbi, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona. "My goal is to compare the amino acids we find on Bennu to Earth's early life. I'm hoping to answer this question: 'Did early life use the building blocks that were delivered from outer space?'"

The University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum in the historic Pima County Courthouse will be one of three sites where the public can view samples from Bennu – a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid – brought back to Earth by the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission.

Members of the OSIRIS-REx science team will be honored during Saturday's football game at Arizona Stadium, a little over a month after they scored a spectacular touchdown of their own.

NASA revealed on Wednesday that "the building blocks of life on Earth" may have been found in an asteroid sample collected from space.

Scientists said they got more material than expected from the OSIRIS-REx mission during its seven-year journey to the asteroid Bennu.

NASA on Wednesday showed off its first asteroid samples delivered last month by a spacecraft — the most ever returned to Earth.

Landing day for the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx sample return was also launch day for the OSIRIS-APEX mission, as the spacecraft took on a new name, a new mission, and a new leader in assistant professor of planetary sciences Dani DellaGiustina. Over the next six years, DellaGiustina and her team will guide the spacecraft to its next target: a potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid called Apophis.

Scientists from the University of Arizona and NASA working at the Johnson Space Center in Houston continue their preliminary analysis and inventory of the asteroid sample collected by the OSIRIS-REx ahead of an official unveiling scheduled for Oct. 11 during a livestreamed news conference. Mission leaders hope the "black dust and debris" will provide insight into the birth of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Meanwhile, the spacecraft, now renamed OSIRIS-APEX, has embarked on a new journey to study the asteroid Apophis.

On Sunday, NASA's OSIRIS-REx dropped off a capsule containing rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu at the Department of Defense Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, the spacecraft, now renamed OSIRIS-APEX, embarked on a new journey to study the asteroid Apophis. "Successfully delivering samples from Bennu to Earth is a triumph of collaborative ingenuity and a testament to what we can accomplish when we unite with a common purpose. But let's not forget – while this may feel like the end of an incredible chapter, it's truly just the beginning of another," said University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Science Dante Lauretta.