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.

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.

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.

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 ...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made an astonishing discovery about the asteroid it has been orbiting since December: the rock is actively spewing material out into space. The asteroid, named Bennu ...

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.

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 ...

On Aug. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles, or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon.

Among them, the near-Earth asteroid, known as Bennu, contains a surprising reservoir of a mineral called magnesium phosphate. These bright-white particles sprinkled in a sea of Bennu's dark rocks ...

Having nearly completed its long journey to the asteroid Bennu and collected a couple of orbital records along the way, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now being readied for its most critical ...