Bennu is one of the most hazardous known asteroids in our solar system. Thanks to a visit by a NASA spacecraft, scientists have a much greater understanding of the near-Earth asteroid, its ...

Bennu is about a third of a mile, or half a kilometer, wide. That is not nearly large enough to cause a planetwide extinction, but it could inflict a sizable swath of devastation.

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 ...

Bennu's boulders Over the last two years, OSIRIS-REx has collected enough images of Bennu to map the asteroid's surface. Variations in the color and albedo (brightness) provide insights into the ...

But Bennu has thrown us a number of curve balls already, which is why we are fully prepared to tag at Osprey (the backup site) if that becomes necessary,” said Mike Moreau, deputy project ...

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.

Perhaps an asteroid like Bennu delivered water to our planet at a critical moment in its development. The sample from Bennu won’t be the first space rock to be studied in such fine detail.

But Bennu is nearly 1,640 feet (500 m) in diameter, and it rotates just once every 4.3 hours — slowly enough that OSIRIS-REx should be able acquire samples via a "safe, smooth, slow high-five ...

Bennu and Ryugu are both classified as Apollo-type asteroids, which are a type of near-Earth asteroid that hang out between the sun and the orbit of Mars.

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.

But Bennu has thrown us a number of curve balls already, which is why we are fully prepared to tag at Osprey (the backup site) if that becomes necessary,” said Mike Moreau, deputy project ...