Pristine samples of asteroid Bennu have revealed something entirely unexpected — not only does the asteroid contain the chemical building blocks of life, but it also originated from an ancient, ...

The OSIRIS-REx mission collected a sample from the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 Bennu, revealing its "rubble pile" structure and composition, including potential biogenic components. Bennu is ...

Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute have found strong evidence that near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu share a common origin with Polana, a much larger asteroid in the main belt. By ...

A groundbreaking study recently published in the Planetary Science Journalhas raised the possibility that asteroids Bennu, Ryugu, and Polana may all be fragments of a common parent body. The paper, ...

SwRI scientists reviewed spectral data of sample material taken from near-Earth asteroids Ryugu and Bennu (pictured above) and compared them with spectral data of main belt asteroid Polana from the ...

They’re the building rocks of life. Analysis of debris from the nearly 5 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu suggests the ingredients to life on Earth were present in the early days of our solar system, ...

Does life exist beyond Earth and have the building blocks of life existed in our solar system for billions of years? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a ...

Jawin, Erica R., Ballouz, Ronald, Ryan, Andrew, Kaplan, Hannah, Al Asad, Manar M., Molaro, Jamie, Rozitis, Benjamin, Keller, Lindsay, and McCoy, Timothy J. 2023 ...

NASA says an asteroid larger than the Empire State Building is heading toward Earth. But don't worry, it's not expected to arrive until the year 2182 and there's only a .05% chance it will hit our ...