Asteroid Bennu is a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid that was studied by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission from 2018 to 2021. Skip to main content. Open menu Close menu. Space.

An early analysis of a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu suggests that the space rock had an unexpectedly water-rich past — and it may have even splintered off from an ancient ocean world ...

What was the most surprising or unexpected thing that happened as the mission unfolded? There are so many. I call Bennu the “trickster asteroid” because it constantly surprised us and challenged us.

Bennu is a 1,600-foot-wide near-Earth asteroid that was discovered in 1999 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Project. It passes by Earth approximately every 6 years. However ...

A space rock is making big news this weekend. And it could make even bigger news next century. Potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid Bennu, the subject of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission that's set ...

Five science instruments mapped Bennu's chemistry and mineralogy to determine the effect of sunlight on the asteroid's orbit. Cost of the mission, excluding launch, is $800 million.

NASA is about to recover a cup's worth of rocks and dirt from the mysterious asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA Over the past seven years, a NASA spacecraft has put 4.4 billion miles on the odometer as ...

Bennu is a small, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid that passes 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.

Asteroid Bennu seems to have come from a long-lost world on the fringes of the solar system, where saltwater pooled and dried over thousands of years and life’s basic ingredients were widespread.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Bennu isn’t an asteroid that will bring about worldwide devastation. If the asteroid were to collide with Earth, it would damage the planet outward up to 600 miles ...

An impact from Bennu would be very destructive, but Earth has seen worse. Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid that was roughly 6 miles wide (10 kilometers across) struck Earth, killing most ...

Bennu was also an attractive target because it skirts the asteroid belt, which circles the sun between Mars and Jupiter. At its closest, the asteroid is 200 million miles from Earth. While still a ...