NASA says Bennu asteroid sample shows evidence of water, carbon 00:24. Rocks and soil collected from the asteroid Bennu and brought back to Earth last month by NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe are rich in ...

Bennu was discovered in 1999 and is believed to be part of a larger asteroid that collided with another space rock. It’s about one-third of a mile wide and is roughly the height of the Empire ...

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft closely approached Bennu three years ago, it extended a Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism head, or TAGSAM, toward the asteroid and fired a blast of nitrogen gas.

The results of this first Bennu analysis, NASA says, show that the asteroid has likely experienced multiple water-related episodes before it coalesced into the mess of debris we know today.

By traveling to Bennu, NASA researchers reasoned, a probe could gather pristine material. The OSIRIS-REx probe arrived at the 1,850-foot-wide asteroid in 2020, scooped up rock and dirt, and then ...

When the capsule from the OSIRIS-REx space craft touched down Sunday on Earth, local researchers said the possibilities for what the discovered asteroid holds are infinite.

According to Nature, Bennu has already been found to have the highest percentage of carbon ever measured in an extraterrestrial object at 4.7 percent.

Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid, the most common type in the Solar System. It formed from the pieces of a water-rich parent body, whose fate is unknown.

"Asteroid Bennu may be a fragment of an ancient ocean world. That's still highly speculative. But it's the best lead I have right now to explain the origin of that material," Lauretta said.

Bennu orbits at an average speed of 63,000 miles per hour. Once close to Earth, it takes around 1.2 years to orbit the sun fully, and rotates once every 4.3 hours.

Asteroid Bennu is a primordial goldmine of secrets. A relic from our early solar system, it may hold molecular precursors to the origin of life. Bennu's orbit takes it close to the Earth every six ...

And when we got to Bennu, we actually saw we did a pretty good job. We really did see this interesting spinning top shape that looks like, you know, it's bulging at the equator.