Sample Return

Tiny Fragments of a 4-Billion Year Old Asteroid Reveal Its History

In June 2018, Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission reached asteroid 162173 Ryugu. It studied the asteroid for about 15 months, deploying…

2 weeks ago

Asteroid Samples Were Once Part of a Wetter World

Nine months have passed since NASA's OSIRIS-REx returned its samples of asteroid Bennu to Earth. The samples are some of…

4 months ago

NASA is Considering Other Ways of Getting its Mars Samples Home

In 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars. For the next three years, this astrobiology mission…

5 months ago

OSIRIS-REx’s Final Haul: 121.6 Grams from Asteroid Bennu

After several months of meticulous, careful work, NASA has the final total for their haul of asteroidal material from the…

9 months ago

Finally, Let’s Look at the Asteroid Treasure Returned to Earth by OSIRIS-REx

NASA's OSIRIS-REx delivered its precious cargo to Earth on September 24th, 2023. The sample from asteroid Bennu is contained inside…

10 months ago

OSIRIS-REx Returned Carbon and Water from Asteroid Bennu

Carbon and water are so common on Earth that they're barely worth mentioning. But not if you're a scientist. They…

1 year ago

Watch OSIRIS-REx Release its Sample Capsule

Most of the spacecraft we send out into the Solar System are never meant to return. Time, space, and entropy…

1 year ago

We Can Only Bring 30 Samples of Mars Back to Earth. How Do We Decide?

The Mars Sample Return Mission is one of the most ambitious missions ever conceived. Though the samples won't be returned…

2 years ago

Fly Around Jezero Crater on Mars in This New Video

There’s a reason Jezero Crater was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance Rover: it is considered one of…

2 years ago

Perseverance is Building Up a Big Collection of Mars Samples

NASA's Perseverance Rover has reached another milestone. It's finished caching its samples for a potential return to Earth. The sample…

2 years ago