NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission uncovered a cosmic connection between asteroid Bennu and Earth’s Searles Lake. Both contain minerals formed by evaporating salty water, hinting that Bennu’s parent body once ...

The asteroid Bennu has provided groundbreaking insights into the chemistry that may have set the stage for life in the early ...

"That's the kind of environment that could have been essential to the steps that lead from elements to life,” said the Smithsonian Institution ... pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, ...

The potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu probably won't hit Earth. But this study shows the damage a space rock of its size could do.

Jennifer Levasseur, museum curator, National Air and Space Museum This article is a selection from the March 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazine ...

Early analysis of asteroid samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission show the residue of an icy brine, and a soup of amino acids ...

For the first time, scientists have completed an in-depth analysis of fossilized soft tissues from a plesiosaur Sarah Kuta Daily Correspondent An artist's illustration of a plesiosaur, based on ...

Asteroid Bennu wasn’t what NASA expected. Instead of a smooth surface for sample collection, OSIRIS-REx encountered a chaotic ...

After examining just 0.06% of a 120-gram material sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu — which returned to Earth in Utah's west desert in September 2023 — a group of scientists has ...

A sample of dust and rocks from an asteroid just took us closer to an answer. Collected from Bennu, a space rock shaped like a spinning top, as it soared by Earth roughly five years ago, the samples ...