In 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft began its journey to Bennu, a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft rendezvoused with Bennu in 2018 and successfully obtained a sample of it in October 2020. In September, 2023, the spacecraft jettisoned the sample capsule and sent it onto a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert. Analysis of the sample promises to provide insights into the formation of the Earth as a habitable world and the origin of life.
In this lecture, Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx primary investigator and professor at the University of Arizona, will discuss the findings from the first set of data from analysis of the Bennu samples.
Sponsored by Aerojet Rocketdyne: An L3Harris Technologies Company and United Launch Alliance