NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe sidled up to the diamond-shaped asteroid Bennu today (Dec. 3), bringing an end to a circuitous deep-space chase that lasted 27 months.

Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed the OSIRIS-REx probe when it touched down on the rock to collect a sample, revealing that the space rock's nature was much different than scientists had thought.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe sidled up to the diamond-shaped asteroid Bennu today (Dec. 3), bringing an end to a circuitous deep-space chase that lasted 27 months.

A microscope image of a dark Bennu particle, about a millimeter long, with a crust of bright phosphate. To the right is a smaller fragment that broke off.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is not due to bring home samples from the asteroid Bennu until some time in 2023, but already it is turning up some fascinating discoveries about this distant world ...

This composite image of a boulder on Bennu's surface shows the cascading rim of one of the asteroid's ancient craters that originated while Bennu resided in the asteroid belt. The image combines ...

The United States' first asteroid-sampling probe has arrived at its target, acing a deep-space rendezvous about 76 million miles (122 million kilometers) from Earth. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft ...

It demonstrates the number and distribution of boulders across Bennu’s surface. The image was taken on 7 Mar by the PolyCam camera on Nasa’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a distance of about 3 miles.

Sampling occurs in 2020. Another potential problem, in terms of finding a safe site to sample Bennu's regolith, is the preponderance of boulders on the surface.

In October 2020, NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft took a bite out of asteroid Bennu.Before Osiris-Rex returns to Earth to deliver its bounty, it took a moment to revisit the scene of the heist. The ...

This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 km).