Two spacecraft have recently ventured to near-Earth asteroids to collect samples and return them to Earth for hands-on study: JAXA’s Hayabusa2 to Ryugu and NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, […]
Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites preserve volatiles and carbonaceous matter, the key ingredients of life, from the early solar system. These meteorites show spectral similarities to the C-type asteroids that are also […]
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, is NASA’s first mission to return a sample from an asteroid. On October 20, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touched […]
Images from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft show that rocks on the surface of asteroid Bennu may crack and break down due to thermal cycling […]
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft first detected particle ejections from asteroid Bennu in January 2019 — rock fragments as large as 10 centimeters were flung off its surface! Two more particle ejection events […]
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports the presence of ribose and other bio-essential sugars, including arabinose and xylose, in two carbonaceous meteorites, Murchison […]
The final 2018-2019 Cosmic Explorations Speaker Series lecture will take place at the Lunar and Planetary Institute on Wednesday, July 31, at 7:30 pm. Dr. Kevin Righter of the Johnson Space […]
Based on images and thermal data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft, a new study shows that asteroid (101955) Bennu has extensive surficial diversity […]
Last week at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the OSIRIS-REx team announced the first observations of particles being ejected from asteroid Bennu. Several such eruptions have occurred in […]
In case you missed the press conference at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting (Washington, DC) last week, the OSIRIS-REx team reported their initial scientific findings on arriving at the asteroid Bennu. […]
After a nearly two-year space chase, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe finally had its asteroid target, Bennu, in sight on August 17, 2018. On September 11, 2018, the probe started its first […]
The first U.S. mission to return samples of an asteroid to Earth is another step closer to its fall 2016 launch, with the delivery of three cameras that will image […]
The PDS is inviting reviewers for the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission. The PDS is establishing several review panels for the data products that will […]
NASA’s team that will conduct the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid has been given the go-ahead to begin building the spacecraft, flight instruments and ground system, […]
NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard a spacecraft headed to the asteroid Bennu in 2016. The “Messages to […]
Dolores Hill, co-lead of the OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroids! program with Carl Hergenrother, was recognized as one of 12 White House Champions of Change for citizen science on June 25, 2013. […]
The May 2013 issue of the Discovery and New Frontiers News is on the Discovery Program website. In this issue: What caused the uneven gravity on the Moon, a mystery since […]
An asteroid that will be explored by a NASA spacecraft has a new name, thanks to a third-grade student in North Carolina. NASA’s Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will […]