March 6, 2024 A pebble scooped from an asteroid is now on display at UArizona museum The Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum is now one of only three places in the world where the public can see a piece of the asteroid Bennu, collected during NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission.
March 5, 2024 James Webb Space Telescope captures the end of planet formation How much time do planets have to form from a swirling disk of gas and dust around a star? A new University of Arizona-led study gives scientists a better idea of how our own solar system came to be.
Nov. 16, 2023 Tracking an errant space rocket to a mysterious crater on the moon A University of Arizona team tracked down a contested piece of space junk that crashed onto the moon. Their findings shed light on why it left not one but two craters.
Oct. 25, 2023 Digital terrain models zero in on Martian surface A team of scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory brings alien landscapes to life by creating realistic, to-scale digital terrain models from scientific data.
Oct. 31, 2023 OSIRIS-REx flies on as OSIRIS-APEX to explore a second asteroid NASA extended the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission, which has since been renamed OSIRIS-APEX. The spacecraft will study another potentially hazardous, near-Earth asteroid named Apophis.
Sept. 24, 2023 A gift from space: UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission delivers largest-ever asteroid sample to Earth The delivery from the asteroid Bennu, seven years after the spacecraft launched, marks the end of the space-voyaging phase of the mission. Scientists will now study the rocks and dust to better understand the origins of life on Earth.
Sept. 1, 2023 OSIRIS-REx team completes final test before asteroid sample delivery Members of NASA's UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission completed one last dress rehersal before the spacecraft delivers a sample from asteroid Bennu to the Utah desert on Sept. 24.
July 6, 2023 OSIRIS-REx team members practice recovering asteroid sample capsule bound for Earth Everything must go smoothly when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft releases its capsule full of pristine asteroid material over the Utah desert in September. Members of the mission team gathered at Lockheed Martin in Colorado to rehearse recovering the capsule and its precious cargo.
June 13, 2023 Pass the salt: This space rock holds clues as to how Earth got its water The discovery of tiny salt grains in a sample from an asteroid provides strong evidence that liquid water may be more common in the solar system's largest asteroid population than previously thought.
May 16, 2023 Astronomers want your help hunting for asteroids Scientists at the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have created an online portal that allows members of the public to help discover asteroids hurtling through our solar system.