NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has finally entered asteroid Bennu’s orbit, after more than two years of hurtling through space toward the rock.

The near-Earth asteroid Bennu has been in an orbit that brings it near to Earth for 1.75 million years, based on a study of craters on the asteroid’s surface.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft maneuvered into an orbit that takes it within 4,000 feet of the surface of Bennu, a diamond-shaped asteroid that's 70 million miles from Earth.

By inserting itself into orbit around Bennu, Osiris-Rex will survey the asteroid from a distance of only about 1 mile (1.75 kilometers) from its center.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe arrived at its target, a large space rock known as Bennu, in early December. The spacecraft’s mission will take several years to complete, but it hit a major ...

Bennu has an orbit that intersects with Earth’s own orbital path, so a return trip is less fuel-intensive than it might be from other asteroids within our reach.

However, new studies of the asteroid’s orbit have found that the asteroid probably won’t hit Earth before the year 2300. If you don’t know what Bennu is, ...

By traveling to Bennu, NASA researchers reasoned, a probe could gather pristine material. The OSIRIS-REx probe arrived at the 1,850-foot-wide asteroid in 2020, scooped up rock and dirt, and then ...

What the scientists discovered— Bennu was first discovered in 1999 and has been studied extensively so that its orbit was already one of the most well understood of all potentially hazardous ...

Five science instruments mapped Bennu's chemistry and mineralogy to determine the effect of sunlight on the asteroid's orbit. Cost of the mission, excluding launch, is $800 million.

Asteroid Bennu is a primordial goldmine of secrets. A relic from our early solar system, it may hold molecular precursors to the origin of life. Bennu's orbit takes it close to the Earth every six ...