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LiveScience
LiveScience
Elizabeth Howell

'Potentially hazardous' asteroid Bennu contains dust older than the solar system itself — and traces of interstellar space

Bennu Solar System Asteroid Bennu NASA Earth Michelle Thompson NASA Johnson Space Center Nature Geoscience the University of Arizona
An image of the asteroid Bennu produced by the OSIRIS-REx mission.

The near-Earth asteroid Bennu contains stardust that is older than our solar system, as well as organic materials and ices from interstellar space, three fresh studies of the asteroid's sample materials show.

Scientists all over the world have been poring over samples of Bennu ever since material from the asteroid was brought to Earth in 2023, courtesy of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which flew alongside the asteroid before briefly landing on it and scooping up samples in 2020.

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