Media Coverage

University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta, who leads NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, talks about what they have gathered from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

The University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission is included in a list of the most exciting space missions of 2023.

The return to Earth by the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission ranks as a top space exploration mission in a roundup of upcoming astronomy and astrophysics projects.

The University of Arizona once again ranks among the nation's top public research universities, with $770 million in total research activity in fiscal year 2021, according to data released Thursday by the National Science Foundation. The university also retained its No. 1 ranking in astronomy and astrophysics expenditures at more than $113 million – more than $40 million ahead of the No. 2-ranked university.

The OSIRIS-REx NASA mission, which is spearheaded by scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, made history in 2020 when it successfully touched down on an asteroid named Bennu and collected a sample of rock to bring back to Earth for study. Now the spacecraft is being prepared for a second mission: to the near-Earth asteroid named Apophis. The extended mission has a new name, OSIRIS-APEX, and a new principal investigator, Dani DellaGiustina, who started out on the OSIRIS missions as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona.

The University of Arizona's Daniella "Dani" DellaGiustina shot for the stars and has already landed among them. Today, the planetary scientist was named one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 – an annual list of early-career scientists and engineers who are developing innovative approaches to problems across a range of disciplines.

Asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission led by the University of Arizona, kept surprising the mission team while the spacecraft studied the asteroid from a distance. The biggest surprise, however, came when OSIRIS-REx swooped in to grab a sample of material from Bennu and encountered not a solid surface but one that gave way so easily the sampler arm sank 1 1/2 feet into it within seconds.

Asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona, kept surprising the mission team while the spacecraft studied the asteroid from a distance. The biggest surprise, however, came when OSIRIS-REx swooped in to grab a sample of material from Bennu and encountered not a solid surface but one that gave way so easily the sampler arm sank 1 1/2 feet into it within seconds.

A new study in the journal Science from University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta shows samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft indicate the surface asteroid Bennu consists of "low-cohesion rubble." Lauretta and colleagues report the mission collected about 250 grams, or 9 ounces, of material, which will return to Earth for laboratory analysis in 2023.

Watching the skies for large asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth is a global endeavor. So, to test their operational readiness, the international planetary defense community will sometimes use a real asteroid's close approach as a mock encounter with a "new" potentially hazardous asteroid. The lessons learned could limit, or even prevent, global devastation should the scenario play out for real in the future. "This real-world scientific input stress-tested the entire planetary defense response chain, from initial detection to orbit determination to measuring the asteroid's physical characteristics and even determining if and where it might hit Earth," said Vishnu Reddy, associate professor at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, who led the campaign.