NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Returns Historic Asteroid Sample to Earth

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully delivered a sample of material from the asteroid Bennu to Earth, providing scientists with valuable information about the origins of life. The 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid likely contains pre-solar material and amino acids, the building blocks of life. The sample, the first ever brought back to Earth by a US team, will be studied by cosmochemists and future generations of scientists. Bennu's composition and proximity to Earth make it an ideal candidate for study, and the mission also helps researchers understand how to deflect potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.