Image Two LPL Researchers Will Get First Crack at Asteroid Samples July 29, 2023 When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivers its precious asteroid samples to Earth on Sept. 24, Pierre Haenecour and Tom Zega will be among the first to examine the scientific treasure trove. Read more
Image Pass the Salt: This Space Rock Holds Clues as to How Earth Got Its Water June 13, 2023 The discovery of tiny salt grains in an asteroid sample brought to Earth by the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft provides strong evidence that liquid water may be more common in the solar system's largest asteroid population than previously thought. Read more
Image Asteroid Bennu Comes From a Long-lost Salty World With Ingredients For Life Jan. 29, 2025 Nature had the conditions to "cook up" the chemical precursor ingredients for life before Earth formed, according to two studies published by the sample analysis team of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which is led by Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona. Read more
Image All About Asteroids with OSIRIS-REx and SPACEWATCH March 14, 2024 In this video, Dr. Erika Hamden, professor of astrophysics at the U of A, talks with KALFAA science director Professor Tom Zega to learn about KALFAA's role in analyzing the Bennu sample. Read more
Image NASA's OSIRIS-REx Curation Team Clears Hurdle to Access Remaining Bennu Sample Jan. 11, 2024 Before this milestone, the curation team already had collected more than the 60 grams required to declare the mission a success. Read more
Image Sweating The Small Stuff: UArizona Scientists Have Begun To Study Samples From Asteroid Bennu Dec. 20, 2023 At the university's Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis, a suite of instruments allows researchers to study the particles collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission the down to the atomic scale. Read more
Image 2023 McKay Awardee - Zoë Wilbur Nov. 3, 2023 Zoë Wilbur is a fifth-year planetary sciences graduate student who studies cosmochemistry. Read more
Image OSIRIS-REx Flies on as OSIRIS-APEX to Explore a Second Asteroid Oct. 31, 2023 NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission learned much about the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu and its risk to Earth. Now, the mission will change hands and target a different kind of potentially hazardous asteroid, Apophis. Read more
Image UArizona Launches Arizona Astrobiology Center to Unlock the Mysteries of Life in the Universe Oct. 17, 2023 The center will bring together students and faculty from across campus and disciplines to unravel the enigma of life's beginnings and our place in the cosmos. Read more
Image First Look at Bennu Sample Reveals Carbon and Water Oct. 11, 2023 NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has returned a sample that scientists will study for decades to learn more about the formation of the solar system. Read more
