LPL Spotlight Stories

The Nightingale sample site after the TAG event. The red "X" indicates the approximate location where OSIRIS-REx contacted the asteroid's surface. The red circle shows the same boulder that was circled in the before image. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

New Images: OSIRIS-REx Leaves its Mark on Bennu

New images of Bennu's surface captured during the final flyover reveal dramatic changes to the sample site.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Completes Final Tour of Asteroid Bennu

Mission scientists will compare the final shots of the asteroid Bennu with images taken before the touch-and-go maneuver, which kicked up dust and rocks. Images are expected in about a week and will help scientists understand the asteroid's composition.
This artist's concept shows the planned flight path of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its final flyby of asteroid Bennu, which is scheduled for April 7. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

A Final Look At Bennu Before OSIRIS-REx Heads Home

The OSIRIS-REx mission is on the brink of discovering the extent of the mess it made on asteroid Bennu's surface during last fall's sample collection event.

 This illustration captures an exoplanet as it is about to cross in front of – or transit – its star. By analyzing light from the star through the planet's atmosphere, scientists can gather clues about its composition. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Probing Alien Worlds: NASA's Pandora Mission Builds on UArizona Research

Tools and methods developed at the University of Arizona will help scientists study the atmosphere of exoplanets as part of NASA's Pandora mission concept.

Io Volcano Observer: Following the Heat and Hunting Clues to Planet Evolution

A proposed mission called Io Volcano Observer (IVO) would visit Jupiter’s moon Io, which is a true volcanic wonderland with hundreds of erupting volcanoes gushing tons of molten lava and sulfurous gases at any moment. https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/faculty/mcewen

How Microbes in Iceland Can Teach Us About Possible Life on Mars

Dr Solange Duhamel and Dr Christopher Hamilton, based at the University of Arizona, have brought together their respective expertise in environmental microbiology and planetary science to investigate how life could survive on Mars. Fascinatingly, this has been done by exploring an area in Iceland that resembles the red planet.
The descent stage holding NASA's Perseverance rover can be seen falling through the Martian atmosphere, its parachute trailing behind, in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

UArizona-Led HiRISE Camera Helped Guide Mars Rover to the Perfect Spot

The camera also captured the descent of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

 The Very Large Telescope, or VLT, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. VLT's instrumentation was adapted to conduct a search for planets in the Alpha Centauri system as part of the Breakthrough initiatives. This image of the VLT is painted with the colors of the sunset reflected in water on the platform. A. Ghizzi Panizza/ESO

A New Way to Look for Life-Sustaining Planets

Associate Professor Daniel Apai is a member of an international team of astronomers that developed new capabilities that make it possible to directly image planets that could potentially harbor life within the habitable zone of a neighboring star system.
This artist's concept shows the planned flight path of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its final flyby of asteroid Bennu, which is scheduled for April 7. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

OSIRIS-REx to Fly a Farewell Tour of Bennu

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will swoop around Bennu one more time to collect information about how the Tough-and-Go sample collection affected the asteroid before returning home.

 This artist’s concept shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departing asteroid Bennu to begin its two-year journey back to Earth. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

UArizona-Led OSIRIS-REx Mission Plans for May Asteroid Departure

Since its launch in September 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has traveled billions of miles, mapped the surface of an asteroid in unprecedented detail, and made new scientific discoveries about near-Earth asteroids. Now, it's preparing to bring a piece of asteroid Bennu home.