April 25, 2022 NASA gives green light for OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to visit another asteroid The extended UArizona-led mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX, will study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, which is expected to have a close encounter with Earth in 2029.
Oct. 6, 2021 Highly Porous Rocks Responsible for Bennu's Surprisingly Craggy Surface Using data from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, a UArizona-led team of scientists concluded that asteroids with highly porous rocks, such as Bennu, should lack fine-grain material on their surfaces.
Aug. 11, 2021 OSIRIS-REx Improves Understanding of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids NASA and UArizona scientists were able to significantly reduce uncertainties about asteroid Bennu's orbit and determine the likelihood of the asteroid impacting Earth between now and the year 2300.
May 10, 2021 OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft is Headed Home with Asteroid Sample After nearly five years in space, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way back to Earth with an abundance of rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu.
April 15, 2021 New Images: OSIRIS-REx Leaves its Mark on Bennu Like boot prints on the moon, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left its mark on asteroid Bennu. Images taken during the spacecraft's final flyover reveal the aftermath of the historic encounter with the asteroid.
Dec. 14, 2020 COVID-19, Asteroid Dust and Crane Flies: UArizona's Top Stories of 2020 Preventing a COVID-19 outbreak through wastewater testing, tagging an asteroid and solving a longstanding Maya mystery were all in a year's work at the University of Arizona.
Oct. 29, 2020 OSIRIS-REx Successfully Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu NASA's UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu.
Oct. 20, 2020 OSIRIS-REx Successfully Touches Asteroid Bennu in Sample Grab Ten years after NASA selected UArizona to lead the OSIRIS-REx mission, the spacecraft successfully completed its most treacherous and rewarding task: sample collection.
Oct. 19, 2020 What Touching an Asteroid Can Teach Us NASA will make history on Oct. 20 by attempting to grab a sample from an asteroid. UArizona professor Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission, discusses the significance.
Oct. 15, 2020 Why Scooping a Sample from an Asteroid is Harder than it Looks Here's what will happen on Oct. 20, when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descends to asteroid Bennu to pick up a sample of pristine material from the formation of the solar system.