"NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission: Unveiling the Bounty of Bennu"

NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft successfully collected 4.29 ounces of dust and rock samples from asteroid Bennu, exceeding its goal and marking the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space. The mission, which launched in 2016, dropped the sample onto a Utah desert in 2023. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, has also retrieved asteroid samples and will exchange part of its Ryugu sample with NASA for comparative studies. The Bennu samples, rich in carbon, could provide insights into the origins of life chemistry and potential asteroid deflection strategies.