Jan. 29, 2025 Asteroid Bennu comes from a long-lost salty world with ingredients for life Two research publications by the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team suggest that conditions for the emergence of life were widespread across the early solar system.
Dec. 18, 2024 New leadership, interstellar discoveries, dogs to the rescue: Top 10 U of A stories of 2024 From canine companionship to intergalactic intrigue, U of A research, scholarship and expertise generated news around the world in 2024.
Sept. 24, 2024 OSIRIS-REx, 1 year later: Asteroid sample continues to provide clues about early solar system and origins of life on Earth U of A Regents Professor Dante Lauretta says he is "amazed by the discoveries we've made" since the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered an asteroid sample to Earth last year.
June 26, 2024 Bennu holds the solar system's 'original ingredients,' might have been part of a wet world OSIRIS-REx sample scientists took a deep dive into the rocks and dust returned from asteroid Bennu. They found that the sample is rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds – essential components for life as we know it.
April 18, 2024 Two UArizona astronomy researchers named AAAS Fellows For their contributions to the field of astrobiology, Dante Lauretta and Daniel Apai have been elected 2023 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
March 6, 2024 A pebble scooped from an asteroid is now on display at UArizona museum The Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum is now one of only three places in the world where the public can see a piece of the asteroid Bennu, collected during NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission.
Jan. 11, 2024 NASA's OSIRIS-REx curation team clears hurdle to access remaining Bennu sample NASA scientists last week removed the two stuck fasteners on the sample container that had prevented researchers from accessing much of OSIRIS-REx's asteroid Bennu sample.
Jan. 8, 2024 UArizona-led asteroid sampling mission's new journey: OSIRIS-APEX Under the leadership of the University of Arizona's Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina, the former OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sets off on a journey to study asteroid Apophis and take advantage of the asteroid's 2029 flyby of Earth.
Dec. 20, 2023 Sweating the small stuff: UArizona scientists have begun to study samples from asteroid Bennu 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.
Dec. 18, 2023 Asteroids, athletics and 'America the Beautiful': The top stories of 2023 From delivering a historic asteroid sample to setting a university record in Fulbright Scholars, the University of Arizona celebrated several newsmaking events in 2023.
