In 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft began its journey to Bennu, a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft rendezvoused with Bennu in 2018 and successfully obtained a sample of it in October 2020. In September, 2023, the spacecraft jettisoned the sample capsule and sent it onto a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert. Analysis of the sample promises to provide insights into the formation of the Earth as a habitable world and the origin of life.

In this lecture, Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx primary investigator and professor at the University of Arizona, will discuss the findings from the first set of data from analysis of the Bennu samples.

This program will be presented in-person in the Planetarium at the National Air and Space Museum in DC and will be streamed live on YouTube. 

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