On Oct. 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully descended to the surface of asteroid Bennu and collected rocky material from sample site Nightingale during its Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample collection maneuver. Two days later, the mission team received images from OSIRIS-REx confirming the spacecraft had collected more than enough material to meet one of its main mission requirements – acquiring at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of the asteroid’s surface material.

The team later successfully stored the sample in the Sample Return Capsule (SRC) for the spacecraft’s journey back to Earth.

On April 7, 2021, OSIRIS-REx will give Bennu one last glance before saying farewell. Before departing for Earth on May 10, 2021, the spacecraft will perform a final flyby of Bennu – capturing its last images of sample collection site Nightingale to look for transformations on Bennu’s surface after the Oct. 20, 2020, sample collection event.

OSIRIS-REx will deliver the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

An ancient relic of our solar system’s early days, Bennu has seen more than 4.5 billion years of history. Scientists think that within 10 million years of our solar system’s formation, Bennu’s present-day composition was already established.

Bennu likely broke off from a much larger carbon-rich asteroid about 700 million to 2 billion years ago. It likely formed in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and has drifted much closer to Earth since then. Because its materials are so old, Bennu may contain organic molecules similar to those that could have been involved with the start of life on Earth.