LPL Spotlight Stories

A Gift from Space: UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx Mission Delivers Largest-ever Asteroid Sample to Earth
The delivery from the asteroid Bennu, seven years after the spacecraft launched, marks the end of the space-voyaging phase of the mission. Scientists will now study the rocks and dust to better understand the origins of life on Earth.

OSIRIS-REx's Successful Sample Delivery Marks the Start of Extended OSIRIS-APEX Mission
After dropping off its historic sample from asteroid Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is headed to its next target: another potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid, called Apophis.

Take a Stroll Through the Solar System – on the UArizona Campus
Designed objects true to scale, 11 plaques have been installed across campus as part of of an outreach project to make space science accessible to people of all ages.

Preparing to Welcome an Asteroid Sample
On the morning of Aug. 29, outside a hangar on the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in the high mountain desert of central Utah, members of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample recovery team began a two-day "dress rehearsal" – their last opportunity to perfect procedures before the first extraterrestrial samples collected beyond the orbit of the moon are expected to land on Earth on Sept. 24.

OSIRIS-REx Team Completes Final Test Before Asteroid Sample Delivery
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will deliver a sample from asteroid Bennu to scientists waiting in the Utah desert on Sept. 24.

Asteroid Sample Delivery to Launch Decades of Science
A University of Arizona-led NASA mission nearly 20 years in the making is finally reaching its end, but the scientific investigation is only beginning.

This Is How the First-Ever U.S. Asteroid Sample Return Will Unfold
Scientists are gearing up for a high-stakes finale to OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to snare a sample from an asteroid

51 Pegasi b Fellowship at UArizona LPL
The Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellowship supports innovative post-doctoral research in planetary astronomy, spanning solar system planetary science to exoplanet astronomy. Applications from individuals who belong to historically underrepresented groups are particularly welcome. Applications are due by October 6, 2023.

OSIRIS-REx Team Members Practice Recovering Asteroid Sample Capsule Bound for Earth
Everything must go smoothly when the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft releases its capsule with pristine asteroid material to land in the Utah desert in September.

Hamilton, Ranjan, Robinson Named 2023 Scialog Fellows
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a globally important scientific theme. Teams of two or three Fellows who have not previously collaborated compete for seed funding for novel research projects based on the ideas that emerge at the conference.