News

NASA has selected a team that includes two University of Arizona planetary scientists as one of the two finalists to lead the next robotic solar system exploration mission.

If selected, the CAESAR mission would return a sample from a comet to determine its origin and history. NASA is expected to make its decision between CAESAR and a Saturnian mission in mid-2019.

It's a mission to deep space that will not end for another six years. When it does end, however, the findings could be astounding.

Currently, the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft is on its way to an asteroid called 101955 Bennu, in order to bring a piece of an asteroid.

Back on Earth, scientists can't wait to get a good look at it, once it arrives.

In the basement of a building constructed with NASA funds in the early 1960s, University of Arizona scientists prepare to study asteroid dirt from OSIRIS-REx, a first-of-its-kind NASA mission.

As planetary scientists at the University of Arizona await the September launch of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, some members of the team are already preparing for the return of a sample from the asteroid Bennu seven years from now

Understanding Space Weathering of Asteroids and the Lunar Surface: Analysis of Experimental Analogs and Samples from the Hayabusa and Apollo Missions

Michelle Thompson
Graduate Student
Lunar and Planetary Lab, U of A

Dirty Jobs, Solar System Edition: Studying Space Dust from the Moon & Asteroids

Tom Zega discusses studying stardust under the microscope in this Arizona Daily Star special.