Spacedust From Asteroid Bennu Provides Glimpse Into Celestial Past

A vial containing a small sample collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, is seen in this handout photo. The Canadian Press/Handout - NASA

New research on a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu—a small portion of which should arrive in Canada soon—is offering a glimpse into how it came to be.

Studies published in Nature Astronomy and Nature Geoscience last week offer some insight into the granules that were collected and brought to Earth in September 2023 as part of NASA-led OSIRIS-REx mission.